It is now widely accepted that mobility, particularly in large urban areas, will be significantly different in 2030 than it is today.
With transportation seamlessly connecting people's lives, consumers will get from point A to point B in a cleaner, cheaper, and safer way. And our journey is expected to be a productive and entertaining extension of our daily routine.
Broader access will benefit segments of the population ranging from the young to the elderly. Let's take a look at how logistics might look with the next-generation mobility trend.
1. What is the significance of the trend?
Mobility is experiencing its "second great inflection point," a shift toward autonomous, connected, electric, and smart (ACES) technologies. This shift has the potential to disrupt markets while improving the efficiency and sustainability of land and air transportation.
A. Disruptive dimensions of mobility (ACES)
Automated systems with sensors, AI, and analytical capabilities are able to make independent decisions based on the data they collect.
Some noteworthy technologies:
- Radar and camera: Sensors that automatically find objects, classify them, and figure out how far away they are.
- Lidar: a system for measuring the distance of light traveling time
- Steer/brake/shift-by-wire: electrical or electro-mechanical systems that do things on a car that were previously done with mechanical linkages.
- HD maps plus SLAM: Simultaneous mapping and localization solution - a way to map out unknown areas.
- Object detection: technologies used for planning behavior, routes, and movements.
- Driving strategy: Full-stack autonomous vehicle solutions that combine hardware and software.
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Connected-vehicle technologies
Equipment, apps, and systems that use vehicle-to-everything communications to improve safety, system efficiency, and mobility on roads.
Some noteworthy technologies:
- Infotainment (In-car entertainment): Solutions for in-car infotainment (eg. augmented reality, voice recognition, and gesture control)
- Cybersecurity: Solutions to stop cyberattacks on connected cars and commercial vehicles (eg. encoding)
- V2I connectivity: Connectivity between vehicles and infrastructure (V2I) is made possible by software and hardware.
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Electrification technologies
Solutions that involve replacing parts of vehicles that use traditional energy sources with ones that use electricity.
Some noteworthy technologies:
- Beyond LIB: Sodium-ion (Na-ion) and potassium-ion (K-ion) batteries, which might solve the resource problems that LIBs have.
- Lithium-ion battery (LIB): An advanced battery technology that uses lithium-ion as a key part of its electrochemistry.
- Digital twin Battery analytics: A real-time virtual model of a system or process that mirrors the most important parts of the existing power infrastructure.
- Hydrogen fuel cells: a type of propulsion system in which hydrogen is used to convert stored energy into electricity.
- Hybrid propulsion: a propulsion system that uses more than one source of power, either all at once or in turns (eg. fuel-electric)
Hardware and advanced digital/analytics solutions make it possible to use shared-mobility solutions and other forms of transportation instead of owning a gas-powered car.
Noteworthy technology:
- Transportation demand management (TDM): a set of solutions that help people switch to more efficient and environmental-friendly ways to travel or transport.
B. Adjacent technologies
Using new materials (like carbon fiber) and methods (like making engines smaller) to improve fuel efficiency and make transportation more environmental-friendly.
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Value chain decarbonization
Technical tools to reduce emissions from the production of materials and the whole process of making things, from start to end, and to increase the use of recycled materials all along the value chain.
2. How the mobility trend affects the logistics industry?
Logistics is one of the industries affected most by the mobility trend.
First, the future of mobility