Autonomy Digital, held on 4-5 November, is an international show dedicated to professionals of sustainable mobility. This year, debates focused on cities expectations and perspectives on the digitalization of mobility. PARIFEX took part in the show and presented the NANO-CAM, its latest innovative sensor able to collect real time traffic data.
Environment-friendly urban areas
Professionals assert that cities intend to digitalize and to become more environment-friendly. The increase in the number of vehicles has encouraged some metropolis to reconsider their public transport offer. Paris and Sofia are concrete examples on how cities can improve the urban area.
As Paris has observed the vast empty parking space, the City decided to convert this space into green spaces.
The city of Sofia has also noticed a substantial growing ratio car per habitant. That is why the Bulgarian capital intends to reduce the number of vehicles in the town center. This transformation may considerably improve the quality of life while enhancing its attractivity.
Sofia plans to completely change the inhabitants travel habits by making the city center accessible only by public transport, autonomous vehicles, etc., and building parking at the edge of the city.
However, the sanitary crisis has upset these ambitions. Indeed, cars are today the only secured mean of transport allowing to respect the social distancing unlike public transport.
Dedicated infrastructure for mobility
The traffic evolution is based on a precise plan and effective infrastructures. Cities must be aware of travels habits, traffic, the number of vehicles per day, etc., before beginning any change. Collecting data is an substantial step before revamping mobility and offering innovative services such as autonomous shuttles. To help cities to gather data, PARIFEX proposes the NANO-CAM, a cutting-edge sensor that enables to collect traffic data in real time. Based on the LiDAR 3D technology, the NANO-CAM is able to define many information such as the number of vehicles, vehicles classification, speed, etc. Dedicated to an autonomous shuttle 
network, the sensor offers a 360-degree analysis in order to get speed, distance between vehicles and then guarantee a safe travel.
People as key actors
Debates have also revealed that local authorities will need to find solutions to get the full support of inhabitants. But how can they do to involve citizens? According to the experts, citizens are aware that cities are even more congested and a change is needed. They know that it is necessary to move into a new environment-friendly urban area. That is why Paris has launched a public survey to get Parisians opinion through a website, workshops, conferences… and need to use every means possible to involve them in the project.
