Riz Akhtar

Tell us about yourself?

I have a passion for cars, transport technology, data and everything in between. I studied Mechanical engineering and worked all around Australia on road, rail and water projects. After a couple of years, decided to dive into the startup world and with a passion for cars, I haven't looked back! Now I run a data and insights website for cars.

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What are the top 3 trends in your transport/smart city niche that everyone should look out for in the next 5 years?

1. Electric Cars - sales have doubled in the last 12 months and I bought one

2. Light Rail - more projects will be awarded for areas where trains can't get to today

3. Co-working - Focus on working more locally and leveraging technology hence shorter commutes

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How do you/ your company innovate?

We use the power of crowd-sourced and unstructured data to find unique insights and predict trends in the transport industry. Most of this data was not being utilised previously to make better transport decisions.

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Why is encouraging innovation, new ideas, and tech important?

The jobs of the future will come from new ideas and technology which is pushed by driven and innovative founders.