Breaking Data Silos: Towards Open and Scalable Mobility Foundation Models via Generative Continual Learning

TL;DR

This paper introduces MoveGCL, a privacy-preserving, generative continual learning framework that enables decentralized collaboration among data holders to develop universal mobility models, overcoming data silos and enhancing urban sustainability research.

Contribution

MoveGCL is the first framework to combine generative replay, Mixture-of-Experts architecture, and progressive adaptation for decentralized mobility modeling.

Findings

Achieves performance comparable to joint training on six global datasets.

Enables privacy-preserving, cross-institutional mobility modeling.

Mitigates catastrophic forgetting in continual learning scenarios.

Abstract

Human mobility is a fundamental pillar of urban science and sustainability, providing critical insights into energy consumption, carbon emissions, and public health. However, the discovery of universal mobility laws is currently hindered by the ``data silo'' problem, where institutional boundaries and privacy regulations fragment the necessary large-scale datasets. In this paper, we propose MoveGCL, a transformative framework that facilitates collaborative and decentralized mobility science via generative continual learning. MoveGCL enables a distributed ecosystem of data holders to jointly evolve a foundation model without compromising individual privacy. The core of MoveGCL lies in its ability to replay synthetic trajectories derived from a generative teacher and utilize a mobility-pattern-aware Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture. This allows the model to encapsulate the unique characteristics of diverse urban structures while mitigating the risk of knowledge erosion (catastrophic forgetting). With a specialized layer-wise progressive adaptation strategy, MoveGCL ensures stable convergence during the continuous integration of new urban domains. Our experiments on six global urban datasets demonstrate that MoveGCL achieves performance parity with joint training, a previously unattainable feat under siloed conditions. This work provides a scalable, privacy-preserving pathway toward Open Mobility Science, empowering researchers to address global sustainability challenges through cross-institutional AI collaboration. To facilitate reproducibility and future research, we have released the code and models at \color{blue}{https://github.com/tsinghua-fib-lab/MoveGCL}.