Andy Taylor, senior director, global strategy for Cubic Transportation Systems contended that the MaaS market is at a crossroads and could fail if it doesn’t change course, including putting cities and public agencies firmly in the “driving seat” of MaaS apps.
(Third part in a series featuring MaaS industry veterans Andy Taylor and Sampo Hietanen debating the question: Who should control MaaS? Taylor, a former board member of the Europe-based MaaS Alliance was rebutting comments by Sampo Hietanen, CEO and founder of Finland-based MaaS Global, developer of the groundbreaking Whim app.)
In an article in Mobility Payments last week, Hietanen argued that while public transit services should form the backbone of MaaS, public agencies have an inherent conflict of interest. They tend to favor their own public transit services at the expense of various other mobility services. And some of them are shutting out third-party MaaS apps like Whim. All of this could hinder consumers’ “freedom to choose.”
