IBM chief talks intelligent transportation systems

IBM CEO Sam Palmisano on Wednesday stumped for transportation systems that enable collaboration between major players and governments, standards and better network designs.

Speaking at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America annual meeting, Palmisano said the industry needed the following:

Traveler centric transportation networks to handle commuters and freight. These systems would allow users to control their routes, modes of transportation and utilize real-time data. These systems “would connect and collect the data of vehicles, government agencies, freight carriers, travel service providers, weather patterns and even individuals using social media,” said Palmisano. Analytics would ride on top of this data.

IBM is pushing into the transportation industry and running into a bevy of industry specific players. Technology companies see industries like transportation and utilities as a potential growth market.

Standards to connect transportation processes and data flow.

More collaboration to fix traffic problems and coordinate networks.

Palmisano’s point was that the technology exists to make better transportation networks, but there needs to be focus on the mission.

In addition, IBM announced two transportation deals. Among them:

• Big Blue said it has formed a partnership with the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), a university-based research agency, to collaborate on “intelligent transportation projects.” These projects would research technology and innovations that could solve transportation problems in Texas and beyond.
• The company said that it will work with the Finnish Transport Agency to analyze road and traffic data and improve road management.

Related: Talking high-speed railways with Invensys Rail’s Kevin Riddett