SEAT and IBM announced the development of a new solution designed to transform driving in cities.

Announced the day after SEAT presented its concept car Minimó, 'Mobility Advisor' uses IBM Watson AI to help urban citizens make informed decisions about their daily transportation options including cars, scooters, bikes and public transport.

Currently under development and designed to run as a mobile app on 4G/5G networks, 'Mobility Advisor' uses IBM Watson Assistant to provide users with a conversational interface to plan and optimise routes and suggest the most suitable transportation options.

With IBM Watson Machine Learning, 'Mobility Advisor' can learn a user's preferences and make personalized recommendations for how best to complete a journey. Connected to the IBM Cloud, it dynamically adapts to changing conditions by taking into account weather forecasts, traffic reports and things happening in the city that day. It incorporates the user's appointments and historical data about previous choices in order to suggest the best modes of transportation each time – even if that means leaving the car behind, walking, or using one of SEAT's e-Kick scooters for the part of the journey.

SEAT's R&D Mobility team will continue working with IBM technicians on the evolution of Mobility Advisor proof of concept and its different potential applications. Together with XMOBA, SEAT's independent company which tests new solutions that contribute to better mobility, SEAT will analyse the future integration of Mobility Advisor with Justmoove, the collaborative mobility solutions platform which the company already offers to its customers. On IBM's side, the project is being implemented by Viewnext, an IBM subsidiary in Spain.

The move comes as carmakers invest in technology that will enable them to grab a share of the app-based transportation market, pioneered by the likes of Google and car-sharing giant Uber.

HERE Technologies, the automotive mapping company controlled by three German carmakers, last month launched SoMo, by matching drivers and riders with people they know. Microsoft also expanded its partnership with TomTom NV and public transport software-maker Moovit to offer journey-planning tools.

The app has no release date and work on it will continue this year, with features such as Facebook profile integration being considered.