The Week in Mobility - 18 December 2020

The average rider of an electric scooter is a 37 year old male. In Silicon Valley, the birthplace of the electric scooter, the average age of a CEO is 42. Whilst these represent two, as yet unlinked, statistics the point is that products, policies and services often reflect the values and assumptions of their creator. 

What does this mean for Gen Z - those born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s? Most boards don’t employ Gen Z. In fact, the average age of a board member is 63, most MPs in the UK are between 50-59 whilst in the House of Lords the average age is 70. 

Can we claim to be adequately creating a world that accommodates this Tik-tok loving, morally serious, digital native generation? A quick turn to Buzzfeed news and the article, “Gen Z Is Making Fun Of Millennials And Honestly We Deserve It” would indicate that we probably can make no such claim.

Recently I have been on a number of roundtable discussions with representatives from the House of Lords, House of Commons and various board members from automotive OEMs. Most will own a car, possibly two. Many will have exchanged a few desperate WhatsApp messages asking their children for Zoom assistance this year. None of them would dare set foot on an electric scooter.

These groups are actively making decisions about future transportation and yet the generation who will have to live with it are conspicuously absent. 

This is a generation who are entering a covid transformed workplace that will continue to shift increasingly online. This will likely change their outlook on where and how to live in ways that their 9-5 parents may not fully understand. The very fabric of cities, their dynamics and therefore mobility needs could stand to change as a consequence. It’s already happening, in New York, some offices are transforming into apartments which will change journey patterns. 

However, including different generations in conversations alone isn’t sufficient to create future proof solutions. Transportation impacts how you move around a city, urban planning impacts the design of transportation, environmental policy determines the form of transport and infrastructure, logistics determines our access to goods and services and smart city initiatives tie everything together. Having strategic conversations without all parties present is increasingly nonsensical. 

Transportation and Urban Infrastructure are ubiquitous so should be designed to cater for as many perspectives, values and needs as possible. How can we do this with authenticity if our teams don’t represent everyone? How can we identify genuine opportunities with only a singular perspective? We can’t. 

We need Gen Z as much as we need the 70 year old baby boomers. We need people with reduced mobility, BIPOC, parents, nonparents, rich and poor, digital nomads and office workers and everyone in between. 

Critically, we need ubiquity not to mean uniformity but empathy and inclusivity. Perhaps then we’ll welcome in a new era of mobility that won’t look like this….

Elsewhere in the Industry

• Canoo unveils its delivery vehicle - The Verge
• Walmart will trial autonomous trucks in 2021 - The Verge
• Some offices in NYC may be turned into apartments - The New York Times
• Chinese search engine, Baidu is looking to manufacture vehicles - electrive.com
• Why most electric trucks will charge overnight - McKinsey
• FedEx steps into e-commerce following its acquisition of ShopRunner - PYMNTS.com
• Rivian Design VP on starting fresh and brand identity - formtrends.com
• Pollution inequality is already here - NYTimes
• LivingPackets have created reusable packaging for e-commerce - springwise.com
• There is a shortage of public bathrooms which has been made worse by Covid - Axios
• Lion’s electric school bus has launched a vehicle-2-grid pilot - Cision.com
• Rivian is deploying its own charging network - TechCrunch
• Volta to supply Petit Forestier with 1000 electric refrigerated trucks - The Energyst
• Yandex robots start delivering meals in Moscow - Reuters
• The Trans African Highway system will revolutionise mobility in Africa - Global Fleet
• Electric Last Mile Solutions will go public via a SPAC - electriclastmile.com

Miscellaneous

Alternative mobility….

Imogen Pierce - Head of Experience Strategy