MaaS 101 with Sampo Hietanen

What is Mobility as a Service, and can it really replace the convenience of owning a car?On this episode of the Micromobility Podcast, hosted by Prabin Joel Jones, CEO of Micromobility Industries, Sampo Hietanen, widely credited with coining the term Mobility as a Service (MaaS), takes us through nearly two decades of thinking, building, experimenting and learning about the future of mobility.From developing the original MaaS concept in 2006 to founding MaaS Global and launching Whim, Hietanen has seen both the promise and challenges of creating a seamless alternative to car ownership.In this conversation, he shares what MaaS was originally designed to solve, why the car is the real competitor, and what building Whim taught him about convenience, subscriptions and user experience.The conversation also explores how AI could change the way people interact with mobility, moving us beyond apps and toward services that simply understand where we need to go and how we prefer to get there.Today, through his work at Swavia, Hietanen is also exploring another evolution of the idea — Mobility as a Feature, where mobility becomes part of products and services such as real estate and retail rather than a standalone product.In this episodeWhy the real competitor to MaaS is car ownershipHow the original MaaS concept started in 2006What Mobility as a Service actually meansThe lessons from building WhimWhy subscriptions could unlock the potential of MaaSWhy convenience matters more than mobility ideologyHow AI agents could transform the mobility experienceWhy mobility could become a feature of real estate and other productsWhat the future of car ownership could look like