| Sumario: | Purpose Active-aging is a global trend. In Taiwan, active-aging baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1966) have become an important market segment1. They have largely unmet personal transportation needs. A cross-divisional exploratory research project was carried out with the goal of identifying the aforementioned social needs and business opportunities at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). This research project investigated such needs and opportunities. Method A multi-disciplinary research team was formed with a background in design thinking, automotive systems, automotive service and battery. The team used the 'Outside-In' STEEP2 (Social, Technological, Economic, Ecological, Political/ Legal) approach to identify and prioritize the daily personal transportation needs and lifestyle values of Taiwan's baby boomers, and proposed a new personal transportation product and business idea. Then a focus group, consisting of three men and four women from 55 to 75 years old were interviewed to confirm the needs, values and products of these people, and to provide input into business ideas that resulted from the STEEP analysis. ValueWeb3 is used as a tool to present the various roles associated with these proposed new products and services (Figure 1). Results & Discussion (i) Cars equipped with age- and user-friendly technologies, such as emergency brake assist, (EBA), auto parking, and lane-keeping systems (LKS) have a promising market potential. (ii) Taiwan's baby boomers, on average, have accumulated generous assets, are able to afford cars and are interested in financial investments. But they are tired of the nuisances related to regular car maintenance and prefer to leave an inheritance to their children. (iii) A new revenue-generating 'Active-aging Easy Sharing Personal Mobility Service' business idea has resulted from this investigation. This business idea will allow Taiwan's active-aging baby boomers to enjoy carefree personal mobility, while reducing operational costs by adopting age-tailored driver-assisted technologies, environmentally friendly car incentives, as well as car-sharing and revenue generating operations (Figure 2).
|
|---|