“The Future of Urban Mobility” is a subject close to our hearts. So much so that we travel far and wide to talk about it. Last week, Moovit Chief Revenue Officer Josh Wine spoke at a conference in Iceland. This week, Co-founder and CEO Nir Erez joined a panel on the subject at the Intel Capital Global Summit in Palm Desert, California. (Intel Capital led Moovit’s latest fundraising round of $50 million. Their global conference included more than 400 portfolio companies, some of which got stage time like Moovit.)

Nir literally kept the discussion grounded. The three other panelists were from aviation companies Blade, Joby Aviation and Volocopter and they talked only about commuting in the sky. Nir reminded the crowd that the vast majority of mass transit occurs on the ground: air transport can carry about 1,000 passengers per hour compared with the 35,000 passengers per hour on a single rail of a commuter train.

Nir said the key challenge to fixing gridlock and overcrowded transit on city streets around the world cannot happen at the infrastructure layer. Change must come from different ways of thinking about transit, starting with the smart utilization of data to improve transit systems. Bold brave decisions are necessary, Nir said, especially when the average number of passengers per vehicle is less than 1.2 persons.

“We need a mindset that efficient options like carpooling and ridesharing are okay,” Nir said.

A sketch artist captured discussion highlights in real time, including the observation “Consumers can adapt to new technology quickly,” which Nir quickly validated. He reported that Moovit has grown to more than 150 million users in less than six years and is on the path to 1 billion users worldwide by 2021.

When asked about what each of the panel companies’ contribution to society will be years from now, Nir did not hesitate: “The impact of your commute…making it more efficient, improving what you’re doing while you’re commuting.”

Nir’s panel was followed by a fireside chat between Intel Capital President Wendell Brooks and former Director of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) George Tenet.

Moovit Co-founder and CEO Nir Erez (centre) keeps the panel grounded

“Bold brave decisions”: a sketch artist captures the discussion

“Change Mindsets”: the final piece