Dr Stefan Carsten is a futurologist, urban geographer and head of the advisory board of BUS2BUS – the future fair for vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and service providers across the entire bus industry. In his daily work, he combines topics relating to the future of cities, mobility and digitalisation. On our news blog, the mobility expert reports on his key topics for 2026 and explains why these should not be missing from #SCCON26:

Public services instead of isolated solutions

‘Local and regional authorities are faced with the task of bringing together public transport, on-demand services, sharing, cycling, walking and parking via shared data and service layers. This requires user-centred, accessible and interoperable standards. Clear governance, open interfaces and a customer journey that feels as easy for citizens as a good digital service are crucial.’

Energy, connectivity and mobility in harmony

"When transport is electrified, every mobility infrastructure automatically becomes an energy landscape: from depots and charging hubs to neighbourhood mobility stations. At the same time, this new energy mobility requires resilient connectivity to control loads, manage availability in real time and guide users reliably. For the public sector, this means moving away from a few centralised large-scale solutions towards decentralised, modular building blocks (neighbourhood hubs, depot microgrids, PV and storage combinations, bidirectional fleets, dynamic load management) that are effective locally yet remain integrable via standards."

Enabling autonomous driving

"Mobility is becoming a fluid, adaptive system that dynamically adjusts to demand and capacity. For autonomous shuttles and buses to be more than just pilot projects, early deployment and route planning, digital twins and map bases, new operating and safety processes (control centres, remote support), appropriate procurement and rules for stopping zones, transfer points and integration into public transport fares are needed. In short, the public sector must create the conditions today so that autonomous technology can be used reliably, safely and with social acceptance tomorrow. Only in this way can the quality, efficiency and accessibility of mobility in rural areas be significantly improved."

Curious? At a joint panel discussion between BUS2BUS and Smart Country Convention, we will take a look at the topic of mobility data in the public sector. The session highlight will take place on the first day of BUS2BUS 2026 at 1:30 p.m. live on the Future Forum Stage in Berlin.

The complete BUS2BUS programme can be found here.