Two former chairmen of ITS America have combined their expertise to form a consultancy specialising in advice on connected and automated vehicles (CAV).
Peter Sweatman and Abbas Mohaddes have set up
CAVs, which ‘talk’ to each other, are predicted to reduce serious crashes by 80%. However, there will be a transition period of 10-15 years when both conventional and CAVs operate side by side.
Mohaddes believes that: “We are at a tipping point of emergence of mobility and information technologies.
“What’s happening is a convergence of big data with data of computational advances and advances in vehicular technology.”
There is also a convergence of private and public sector bodies that are engaging in the sector, said Sweatman. “In the private sector, there are a lot of new players coming in and trying to figure out what is the best way forward, particularly when a lot of government agencies need to facilitate what’s going on.. I think there’s a strong desire on both sides to work together.”
Sweatman and Mohaddes believe that their expertise can help make this process more efficient, having the advantage of looking across the whole sector, rather than being trapped in the ‘silos’ of individual projects.
Although the two men are officially launching CAVita at the World Congress, informal contacts with organisations in the sector have gone well. “We’re in good shape with some fundamental clients,” said Sweatman. “We’ve had tremendously positive reaction from the marketplace,” added Mohaddes.
