State of the Art of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Ecosystems and Architectures—An Overview of, and a Definition, Ecosystem and System Architecture for Electric Mobility as a Service (eMaaS)

Abstract

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a concept that aligns with both current and future mobility demands of users, namely intermodal, personalized, on-demand and seamless. Although the number of shared mobility, electric mobility and multimodal passenger transport users is rapidly growing, until now, the list of MaaS and electric Mobility as Service (eMaaS) providers is quite short. This could partly be explained by the lack of a common architecture that facilitates the complex integration of all actors involved in the (e)MaaS ecosystem. The goal of this publication is to give an overview of the state of the art regarding (e)MaaS’ ecosystems and architectures. Moreover, it aims to support the further development of eMaaS by proposing a definition and a novel system architecture for eMaaS. Firstly, the state of the art of the MaaS ecosystem is reviewed. Secondly, the eMaaS ecosystem that builds upon our definition of eMaaS is described and the MaaS system- and technical- architectures found in literature are reviewed. Finally, an eMaaS architecture that focuses on the integration of MaaS and electric mobility systems is presented. With the definition, ecosystem and system architecture presented in this work, the aim is to support the further development of the eMaaS concept.

Heuristic-Based Journey Planner for Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

“…Other ambiguities that may hinder user acceptance are the narrow range of demographics of potential adopters which limit the overall user base [5], the socioeconomic qualities of users who will be willing to pay for such a service [6], a clear understanding of the real cost benefits in using MaaS [7], the motivations for behavioural change necessary to lead in the abandonment of current travel practices [8], as well as aspects related to the acceptance of the technological solutions required for the realisation of MaaS [9]. In terms of business modelling, a review of definitions of the MaaS ecosystems is presented in [10], while the dynamics between different actors of such ecosystems and their respective suitability in acting as principal operators are investigated in [11]. Furthermore, of interest are MaaS schemes where large corporations subsidise the provided mobility services to their employees for work related travels [12].…”

“…Data fusion [15], journey planning and ticketing applications [16] and integrated multimodal information platforms [17] are some of the technologies that need to be realised as enablers of MaaS. The above-named technologies and systems are present in most conceptual and prototype MaaS architectures proposed in the literature [10].…”

Investigating Maturity Requirements to Operate Mobility as a Service: The Rome Case

“…The resulting scenario becomes populated by a community of players (among these, users, service providers, integrators, owners and managers of IT and physical infrastructure and fleets, decision-makers, etc.). The definition of MaaS as an ecosystem [15,30,31,41] is thus consistent with all the above, as it refers to the interaction between such a community and its organizational environment. Integration also here becomes a synonym of maturity as the MaaS ecosystem relies on full cooperation among all involved parties.…”

“…Scientific and grey literature on MaaS abound as do the description of case studies, giving rise to a relevant strand of literature reviews (as in [8][9][10]15,20,29], among the many valuable ones). To develop the field study, the analysis of the scientific literature, starting with the above-mentioned sources, proved necessary to understand the principles behind MaaS and its interpretation as an ecosystem [30], shedding light on the challenges of implementing MaaS in a sensitive context like Rome's.…”

“…All these factors are also corroborated if research and practice around the world are considered. Said literature on MaaS abounds, thus evidencing the researchers' recurring interest in some areas: Travel behaviors or modal choices of the MaaS customer [12][13][14]; the way to integrate the different mobility services into specific "bundles" or packages of multimodal transport services [2,15,16]; the identification of general business models [17][18][19]; and last but not least, comparative analyses on the progress of the research itself represented by the many literature reviews [8][9][10]20]. These issues, along with others, will be further elaborated in Section 2.…”