Immense: empowering the transportation evolution
London, 23rd June 2020. As we all adapt to changes in our daily lives, to our businesses and to our communities, the post-pandemic world is confronting one important question: are we going to grasp this opportunity to change and transform our cities for the better? Leading UK tech scale-up, Immense, is helping to answer that by launching a new simulation platform which not only enables us to reimagine the future of our cities, but also provides the opportunity to take proactive steps today to enhance transport and infrastructure for good.
Recent events have opened-up a new world of possible scenarios previously unconceived. What if businesses decide not to return to physical offices? What if commuters now favour private cars, bikes or e-scooters over public transport? What if another lockdown occurs and US cities need to rapidly provide services to transport key workers, while increasing home deliveries? These are just a small sample of questions which Immense can help answer.
Founded in 2016, Immense is an award-winning simulation company that is improving decision-making capabilities across the transport ecosystem. Today, the company announced that it has launched its new, easy to use, cloud-based simulation platform worldwide. The new platform uses a combination of digital replicas of real cities and their respective, accurately modeled populations to enable users to rapidly generate multiple scenarios and measure their impact in minutes. It has been co-created in partnership with some of the world’s biggest automotive manufacturers, fleet managers, transport authorities, infrastructure operators and energy providers.
“Fleet” is the first application being made available on the Immense platform. Fleet subscribers can virtually test how many vehicles would be needed in a city for a viable fleet business, identify where to set up depots, as well as evaluate service performance from a customer’s perspective in 100+ digital cities around the world immediately, including New York, San Francisco and London. For example, what if a fleet of shared electric minibuses is deployed in New York to serve Monday morning commuters? Or how can we get shoppers home if the public transit network in San Francisco hits capacity? The wider impact of the proposed plans can also be quickly assessed, enabling authorities to make wiser decisions about how to support roll-out plans and permissions. The company also shared that it plans to release follow on applications covering regional transport planners and infrastructure providers in the coming months.
More than ever, travel patterns and choices are changing and with behavioral changes comes the opportunity for cities to improve through equitable, efficient access to transport while combating rising congestion and poor air quality. As new environmental policies drive the transition to low-emission fleets, service providers need to assess how and where to transition to greener vehicles, ensuring a cleaner, healthier environment for the public and maximum efficiency for the business. If London imposes greater restrictions on high emission vehicles, how many electric vehicles would be needed to maintain the same level of service? And where would be the best places for e-mobility charging hubs? By providing easy access to advanced mobility simulation and analytics, Immense enables ideas for the future to become actionable opportunities today, helping all stakeholders deliver the services their customers and cities need.
Immense Co-Founder and CEO, Robin North explains: “We’re excited to be launching this next generation of capability onto our platform in response to increasing demands to adapt our transportation systems. You no longer have to guess the impact of unprecedented situations in the world of transportation. We can go beyond backwards-facing analytics to generate alternative ‘tomorrows’ that consider emerging business models, technology, and behavioral change – taking away the risk of expensive assumptions and sunk costs. We believe that 2020 will be the year that automotive manufacturers, fleet operators and policy makers will take the change in status quo and collaborate to help make transportation better for everyone – across the globe”