Mumbai: In the third series of Horizons, Adam Shaw travels to Detroit to meet Ford Motors executive chairman Bill Ford Jr to discuss his vision for mass mobility and the revolution that is needed to prevent global gridlock or what some are calling, 'Carmageddon'.
As the world's population increases and the number of people living in cities rises, it will become more difficult to move around our urban areas.
Bill Ford Jr said: "We see global gridlock as an issue of human rights, not just one tied to business and economics. If I think of our mission at Ford, we started off making cars and then we became a car and truck company, but really we're a mobility company. And if we think of ourselves as that, and I do, then that opens up lots of possibilities. If we do nothing today, that mobility will be severely compromised in the future."
The programme then heads to Volvo in Sweden where they are developing driverless vehicles. Using radars, lasers and high-specification computers, the idea is to integrate a suite of technologies that can detect pedestrians, and allow cars to cruise at speed in convoys.
In Shanghai, reporter James Chau looks at how China's largest metropolis moves millions of people around the growing mega-city and how authorities are trying to get people out of their cars. James also takes a trip on the Shanghai Metro to see how one of China's most efficient and extensive public transport networks runs.
James also visits the Hongqiao Transportation Hub, one of the first transport hubs in the world to integrate air, high speed rail, metro and road under one roof, all within a ten minute walk of each another. Known as one of the world's largest interchanges, Hongqiao deals with more than a million passengers a day. With numbers expected to grow rapidly, James explores the operations of the hub and how it is dealing with the rising numbers.
The Horizons series, sponsored by DuPont, airs weekly on Saturdays at 7.00am and 2.00pm, Sundays at 8.00pm. The sponsorship arrangement was facilitated by BBC Advertising, which sells advertising and sponsorship solutions on behalf of BBC World News and bbc.com.
