RATP Dev Casablanca held a press conference on Tuesday, 14 January in Casablanca one year after the Casaroc innovation laboratory was established. The objective was to present Casaroc, its challenges and its preliminary achievements.
Casaroc is the first RATP Dev innovation laboratory and focuses on improving passenger experience and on data usage. Located in the premises of RATP Dev Casablanca, the city tramway network operator, Casaroc prototypes new services for passengers using field data and then experiments on them with a view to deployment on the Casablanca network and in all RATP Dev subsidiaries.
Innovation at the heart of RATP Group and RATP Dev DNA
The creator of world firsts such as the 100% driverless metro line in Paris, RATP Group maintains its position as a mobility leader thanks to its continuous innovation approach. Its international subsidiary, RATP Dev, is betting on open innovation to propose ever more high-performance, attractive and connected solutions to its clients. This is a vital approach to constantly adapt its transport networks to local specific features and changing passenger behaviour while incorporating the latest technological progress.
Casablanca, a fertile field for innovation
RATP Dev was selected in Casablanca by the local authority, Casa Transports, to deploy the most ambitious urban mobility project in Africa: a mass transit network with exclusive right of way comprising four tramway lines and two high level of service bus lines.
Thanks to its local presence, RATP Dev naturally decided to set up its first innovation lab in Casablanca, the biggest conurbation in Morocco, as a genuine innovation nursery.
Casaroc, an ecosystem that accelerates ideas
Casaroc is based on sharing expertise and cross-fertilisation with all players in the local ecosystem (start-ups, banks, companies, schools, etc.). The partnership approach is structured around three phases: identify opportunities with academic partners, prototyping during which Casaroc supports project backers until the completion of a functional prototype and a scale-up phase in conjunction with business partners to turn projects into concrete solutions that can be deployed in Morocco or in the twelve countries where RATP Dev operates.
Already three practical solutions for passengers
Casaroc has so far prototyped and experimented on three solutions resulting from a hackathon held in May 2018: WIP, a solidarity and safety application, TRAM POP a pop-up store, and CASAWAY, an app to use the tram as a “hop-on/hop-off” service. After these initial successes RATP Dev wishes to transpose the Casaroc concept in Brest to create a network of dynamic, connected labs that can propose new and ingenious solutions for passengers all over the world. Casaroc is part of Urbanopolis, the proprietary RATP Group innovation network.
Focus on Casaroc initial successes
WIP – Initially called BE SALAM, the solidarity and safety application features a preventive system for co-pedestrians and a care system with an alarm on a smartphone and an e-mail instantly sent to the authorities. WIP (Walk in Peace) already enjoys demonstrable success.
TRAM POP – The pop-up store located in trams for a specific duration makes it possible for companies to acquire a turnkey solution to communicate, sell and promote their products while creating a digital animation for passengers.
CASAWAY – Thanks to this application each tramway passenger can use it as a hop-on/hop-off service. Whenever passing by a point of interest, passengers receive a notification and a description.