McKinsey has published recently a most interesting report looking at the 2021-2050 period on the expected evolution of road transportation. It addresses several aspects that over the next 3 decades will change the whole road transportation landscape. The shift towards electrical vehicles will take up steam and already now it …
Read More »The shift to EV is already creating casualties
Electric Vehicles are great, aren’t they? They don’t pollute, require a much more limited maintenance than ICE (Internal Combustion Engines). It would seem that everybody should line up for them (provided their cost keeps decreasing) and cheer the transition. Well, as always happen in complex systems, the landscape is quite …
Read More »From Taxi to TxAI: a big leap ahead
On December 23rd, 2021, Abu Dhabi has become the first city with a commercial autonomous taxi service, TxAI, that is Taxi driven by AI. The trial started few months ago and now it is no longer a trial (offering free rides to suspicious but daring customers) but a regular service …
Read More »Macro changes ahead – I
I have been asked to provide a really (really!) short presentation, 1 to 2 minutes, to the IEEE Board providing technology evolution forecast for this decade. I started the (recorded) presentation by saying that it was impossible to provide a foresight on tech evolution by looking just at … tech …
Read More »Post-Pandemic Scenarios – XXXIII – ReInventing the Car 1
One of the interesting part of the FTI’s report is the one focussing on the evolution of the transportation sector that will change the status quo of manufactures as well as the value perception of the market. If you think about it, for decades the competition among manufacturers have been …
Read More »Megatrends for this decade – XL
Artificial Intelligence driving automation Many industries have adopted automation in both production, using robots – RPA: Robot Process Automation -, and document flow (process automation). This has had a significant impact on the workforce, both in terms of downsizing (activities moved from blue collars to robots and from white collars …
Read More »Public self-driving car in the “first” mile
One usually talk about the “last mile” but in this case I find it catchier, and more appropriate, to call this the “first mile”. A Singaporean start up, QiQ Global is planning is busy at work to deliver their (ugly) cars to help Singaporean get to the nearest subway station …
Read More »The many faces of Digital Transformation – Societal Scenarios X
Autonomous Vehicles Technology to support autonomous vehicles is already available. Think about military drones -UAV, Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles-, automated subway trains… You can also think about early versions of autonomous cars, like Waymo. Technology might not be totally affordable, it might require further enhancement but it is here. The reasons …
Read More »Platforms, present and future VI
3. Industry platforms II A separate post to discuss a quite different sort of platform, the car platform. It has been used by the car manufacturing industry for over 50 years now as a way to decrease the cost of production. The idea is to have a common base: floor …
Read More »Self-driving: a disruption around the corner. For whom?
Doesn’t matter who you are talking to, car manufacturers, trucking companieus, taxi drivers and lay people, everybody perceives that the coming of self-driving cars is going to produce a disruption in the transportation area and in the transportation value chain. There are perceptual aspects, such as “if I have a …
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