Throughout this course,
we'll be using a number of key concepts to
organize our thinking. In each case, it's
important to be clear about what we
mean and what we don't. Let's start with mobility. Mobility means different
things to different people. Think about what
mobility means to you. How is mobility crucial
to your everyday life? Oxford languages
defines mobility as, "The ability to move or be
moved freely and easily". It's useful to contrast
the definition of mobility with that
of transportation. A recent article from Forum
for the Future offers this. Transportation is the act
of moving goods or people. Mobility is the ability to
freely move or be moved. The important difference
here is the word ability. Transportation,
or cross-carry in Latin describes the act of
moving something or someone. Whereas mobility, capable
of movement in Latin, describes the ability of a
person to move or be moved. In other words, transportation
is something you do and mobility is
something you have. Yes, this course is
about transportation. The act of moving goods or
people. But it's about more. It's about how new technologies will create new
opportunities, new abilities, and new
challenges for people to move. As soon as we shift our mindset from
transportation to mobility, we start focusing on people. Liz Morrison of Green
Biz, wrote recently, "The difference between
transportation and mobility is the difference in a focus
on equity and access." We also start focusing on
more than cars and roads. For people, all people to have the ability to get where
they want and need to go, their individual personal
needs must be met. Whether that's allowing
them to overcome a physical limitation
or extending access to different places or offering different
transportation modes to better suit a
person's environment. It also pushes us to think about what else is needed to
create mobility from vehicles to
communication technologies, to devices, to knowledge,
and information. Thinking about your
personal situation, what changes would you like to see that would increase
your mobility? It's interesting to note
that many organizations have incorporated the term mobility in their branding
and our operations. The OEMs for GM, Toyota, they're all
jumping on board. Toyota's website says,
"Toyota is shifting toward a mobility company
in this once in a century period of
profound transformation. We are striving
toward our goal of realizing the future
mobility society." Centering on mobility, also demands that we pay
attention to place. Since the infrastructure and the built environment are key
factors in
enhancing mobility, Ford has created a new
division, Ford mobility. With these
considerations in mind, as the global population grows, more people are
moving into cities. The way they move around, the cities is changing
faster than ever. Ford mobility designs
grows and invest in emerging mobility services
and connectivity solutions. Our aim is to deliver new transportation
initiatives and address urban
transportation challenges. Using technology innovation
and a collaborative approach. We want to improve the way
people and goods move. With our mobility business, we're using the same
customer-centric approach as when we design and
build cars and vans. Putting individual
citizen priorities first to build the best
solutions for the city. Within the broad
topic of mobility, there are a number
of other concepts that are important as well. After defining electrification
and automation in the next two videos and
in the next reading, you'll be able to read extended definitions of
the following terms; mobility as a service, shared mobility, first last mile
problem,
and micromobility.
