View original post.Investors were pouring money into travel startups in 2019. This is especially true with late-stage funding, where well-versed startups navigated their way to new capital. Venture capitalists also looked beyond the United States in 2019 for value, with the Asia Pacific region becoming a focal point for investments. This year saw several $100 million-plus investment rounds – with …

View original post.Algorithms and chips that proactively can train self-driving cars. Automotive touch screens that use vibrations to help you “feel objects.” Powerful next-generation batteries that are enabling electric boats. Those were just some ideas and innovations pitched at Plug and Play’s Mobility Session at its Winter Summit last week. Attending one of the Plug and Play seasonal summits is …

View original post.This new year ushers in a new decade, and in the world of business travel it brings new advances and trends for those embarking on business trips. The World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) last annual review indicates that business travel amounted to an estimated R90 billion – more than a third the of the 2018 travel spend in South …

View original post.I recently received a call from a past client, a director of maintenance who is now a good business friend. He asked me about my experience with a certain software brand. I was very curious about this conversation as they have been using their software company for over 20 years. I happen to know this personally because when …

View original post.Mobility as a Service (MaaS) describes the move away from privately owned modes of transportation towards consuming mobility solutions as a service. MaaS companies aim to reduce the friction of making this transition by integrating various forms of transport offerings into a single mobility platform. The concept was first described back in 1996 and trialled in Sweden. It …

View original post.It’s time for smart cities to embrace new technologies and approaches to combat a growing list of challenges, states global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research. In its new whitepaper, 5 Ways Smart Cities Are Getting Smarter, ABI Research identifies digital twins & urban modeling, resilient cities, circular cities, micro-mobility, and smart spaces as the five new urban …

View original post. While smart cities have been in the public consciousness for a long time, we’ve been writing about them here at PYMNTS since at least 2015. Up until very recently, that conversation has been largely theoretical and conceptual. We had been talking about all of the things we would do in the not-yet-defined future, where 5G technology is …

View original post. The arrival of November marks the unofficial kickoff to the travel season, be it over Thanksgiving weekend, Christmas road trips to see family next month or perhaps a winter vacation down south. But in the digital age, travelers face a few extra risks that we didn’t have to worry about before laptops, smartphones, tablets and other devices …

View original post. Among all AI solutions, I believe the cybersecurity of autonomous cars is the most crucial aspect. One incident alone affecting human lives could disrupt not only a victimized company but the whole industry. It stands to reason that people will immediately lose trust in such technologies. Take, for example, an incident in which a self-driving car killed a …

View original post.An integrated business travel booking is still a dream, according to the majority of corporate travel buyers in a study. A survey from the Association of Corporate Travel Executives reveals that 72% say their business travel program is only somewhat integrated. The study, supported by American Express Global Business Travel, highlights online booking tools, corporate cards and expense …