New Zealand has no shortage of passionate transport entrepreneurs but risk-averse conventional thinking could still see New Zealand lagging behind the rest of the world on transport innovation.
But that message was tempered by keynote speaker and “serial entrepreneur” Victoria Carter telling the Young Transport Professional’s Innovative Transport Entrepreneurs event in Auckland that “trying new things is the key to innovation”.
“We need a range of new ideas because no-one knows what the right solution will be,” she told about 50 guests at the appropriately named Hatchbox innovation lab at GridAkl in Madden Street near Auckland’s waterfront.
Carter sees barriers as not insurmountable “brick walls” which can be driven around, over, under or even through to get the required result.
Remaining curious is also vital as it keeps your mind open to new ideas and also keeps you learning, she says.
Carter describes her own career path as “squiggly” and explains how she established car share company Cityhop and that being “anti-fragile” gets better results than being “resilient”.
But some on a discussion panel such as Ohmio Automotion (autonomous vehicles) and HMI Technologies research and development head Dr Mahmood Hikmet see New Zealand – once world respected for innovation – falling behind.
He blames mainly local and central government for being risk averse and says if founder Mohammed Hikmet wasn’t so passionate about New Zealand that their company might have taken up overseas offers to relocate and seek international funding.
Mooven’s Shannyn Hiroti (who started as a receptionist for HMI Technologies before becoming business development manager at the transport optimisation software and information management firm) and Big Street Bikers (BSB) co-founder Cleve Cameron were also on the panel, saying part of the challenge is overcoming obstacles.
Cameron says the length of time taken to bring ideas about transport to reality is one challenge. He says it’s more about educating people to learn quickly and getting “buy-in” from stakeholders.
He points to the Locky Docks e-mobility charging and secure locking service being rolled out in New Zealand as an example of the success in working with partnerships on such projects. Key to that was finding people hungry for solutions.
Hiroti says no “one size fits all” applies to most projects, that it’s a matter of working through the scenarios and that a passion for end results is the key.
Hikmet says many see New Zealand as an end user rather than setting the pace, but that New Zealand could show the rest of the world how innovation is done.
He says autonomous vehicle (AV) technology has been able to get going in New Zealand because our transport rules don’t specify that a driver is needed, “through a quirk” – an omission rather than a strategic decision.
All agreed that New Zealand needs to keep innovating on transport, and that we remain a creative and innovative country, often leading the way.