Where do we stand with the promise of autonomous mobility?
What is this edition’s visual about?
New forms of autonomous mobility are popping up around the world, from Copenhagen’s subway and China’s Fuxing bullet train to German buses and last-mile delivery robots . These technologies will enable us to move people and goods around the world faster, ultimately reducing costs and increasing efficiency beyond today's capabilities.
This includes entirely new forms of transportation, such as cargo drones that have already started to appear in parts of Europe as well as autonomous freight trucks in the United States. The result is cheaper, greener, and more affordable global products.
This edition’s visual shows current levels of autonomy in the autonomous vehicles market, including the respective predicted increase by 2030. Because of the technology overlap between consumer autonomous vehicles and freight/cargo autonomous vehicles, this increase can help us predict the potential advancement of future technologies, including LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) equipment, which is used to create 3D cloud maps for AI-backed decision-making for all fully autonomous vehicles (on the ground, in the sea, and in the air).?
Briefly, the levels of autonomy can be understood as:
Each of these levels will require a different set of associated technical requirements, from the simple radars found in Tesla cars, which can provide autonomy levels up to 2, to LiDAR in fully autonomous delivery drones.
The current state of autonomous mobility in transportation and logistics
Autonomous mobility is about more than the potential of self-driving cars. It involves a quiet technological revolution that’s similar to the one we underwent when moving from horse and buggy to the advent of the car.?
This early transition to motorized vehicles took about 40 years to complete (from the initial invention to widespread use). And when it comes to fully autonomous mobility, we’re only in the first decade of this gradual shift, a period marked by remarkable technological advances and a significant shift in societal acceptance.
Early innovations aren’t always perfect, either. That’s why progress in allowing higher levels of automation has been pretty slow, even if the technology does exist today. Companies are now expected to prove that they can provide reliable products and services at higher levels of automation.
That's why some of the top mobility trends are likely to involve ways to make autonomous driving easier to scale in practice, while still prioritizing safety. This includes artificial intelligence and how it's impacting Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT), which are essential components when it comes to scaling fully autonomous vehicles in related industries like logistics.?
Startup update:?Elara Digital
“Our mission is to build the most innovative product for maintenance teams to transform know-how and intuition into data-driven insights.?
Customers choose Elara if they want to have a simple and intuitive user interface for maintenance and production staff that is optimized for tablets and smartphones.?
Our unique business model allows working across departments for more transparency and overview.” — Akram Alraai - CEO Elara Digital GmbH
Elara participated as an exhibitor at the 2024 maintenance Dortmund event and once again saw an exceptional number of visitors. Numerous conversations with attendees confirmed their existing hypothesis that current maintenance software solutions are quite difficult to use and often leave users behind.?
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Until next time!