Blog of RENAULT NISSAN Alliance

Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, director of the Human Dynamics Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is introducing his new book, ‘Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread – the Lessons from a New Science’ here at Davos this week.

MIT ‘big data’ guru and Nissan Advisory Board member, Pentland stopped by at the Nissan LEAF-powered Renault-Nissan Alliance Cocoa Hut to answer a few questions about his vision for the future of connected electric vehicles, autonomous driving and his ‘wish list’ for social mobility.

Pentland believes the era of big data can be harnessed to allow us to design better cities and mobility systems, reducing traffic jams and even alleviating poverty. On-demand transportation, he says, is a stunning vision for people designing mobility solutions and a “very worthy goal.”

“Nissan is at the forefront of a lot of these things,” he said. “A synergistic relationship with the power grid could allow us to do a huge amount. And that’s what my book ‘Social Physics’ is all about.”

Watch Pentland's interview