IBM Corp. has teamed up with SEAT S.A., a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, on a new “Mobility Advisor” application to help people make more informed decisions about their daily transportation options.

Introduced today, the application is designed to run on 4G- and 5G-enabled mobile devices. Leveraging IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence platform, it offers a conversational interface that’s intended to make it simple for users to plan and optimize their routes. It can also suggest the most viable transportation option at the user’s disposal, be it a car, scooter, bicycle or public buses and trains.

Mobility Advisor takes into account not just the local traffic conditions, but also factors such as the weather and any events happening in the area that day which could affect someone’s transportation plans. It also considers each user’s preferences, appointments and historical data about previous choices in order to suggest the best method of transportation for each trip, even if that means ditching the car in order to walk, should traffic come to an absolute standstill.

The companies said Mobility Advisor is just one example of how the forthcoming rollout of 5G networks will help to transform driver experiences.

“Traffic congestion and environmental challenges are putting huge pressure on cities to transform,” Jordi Caus, SEAT’s head of New Urban Mobility Concepts, said in a statement. “With its advanced cloud and AI technologies, IBM is helping us to innovate new approaches to mobility that will transform our business strategy while improving the lives of people living in urban areas.”

For now, Mobility Advisor is a proof of concept, which means the application isn’t being made available at this time. However, SEAT said it will continue to work with IBM to explore possible applications for the software. In other words, we’ll have to wait and see if the app is ever integrated with SEAT’s vehicles or if it falls by the wayside.

In any case, Mobility Advisor is a great example of how AI and cloud technologies can come together for game-changing 5G use cases, even if it never actually sees daylight, Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE.

“5G enables a whole set of new next-generation applications, including this one centered around mobility,” Mueller said. “It’s a good use case for using IBM’s Watson advisor to make smarter mobility decisions.”

Photo: SEAT