VW subsidiary SEAT has teamed up with IBM to develop Mobility Advisor, a system that uses IBM Watson AI to help created better-informed decisions about transportation options: from cars, to scooters, to bikes and public transport.

Following the recent news of Free Now, a ride-hailing part of BMW and Daimler’s joint urban mobility venture, it demonstrated the commitment of global carmakers to embrace and utilise advanced technologies – as well as gain valuable market share from technology platforms such as Uber that could potentially dictate fleet buying.

“Traffic congestion and environmental challenges are putting huge pressure on cities to transform,” said Jordi Caus, SEAT’s head of New Urban Mobility Concepts. “At SEAT we are leading the way by working with innovative cities and technology companies to come up with solutions to make mobility easier and more efficient. With its advanced cloud and AI technologies, IBM is helping us to innovate new approaches to mobility that will transform our business strategy while improving the lives of people living in urban areas.”

Mobility Advisor can learn a user’s preferences and make recommendations for how best to complete a journey. Connected to the IBM Cloud, it adapts to changing conditions by taking into account weather forecasts, traffic reports and other events. It incorporates the user’s appointments and historical data about previous choices in order to suggest the best modes of transportation each time – even if that means leaving the car behind, walking, or using one of SEAT’s e-KickScooters for the part of the journey.

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