Shift Magazine - March 2021 - S4

logging on

I

'm not much for buzzwords, but in
the course of preparing a magazine
issue focused on innovations in the
manufacturing and movement of goods,
buzzwords kept popping up in the
research.
The most frequent: Industry 4.0. It's the
idea that we are in the midst of a fourth
industrial revolution.
There seems to be a general consensus
about the previous three. The steam engine
ushered in the first, transforming textile manufacturing in Britain in the
18th century. In the next century, mass production and innovations
such as the internal combustion engine marked the dawn of a second
industrial revolution. Next came the proliferation of computers, the
Internet and the automation of production.
The fourth industrial revolution is a bit harder to define. Klaus
Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, is credited with
coining the phrase at the group's 2016 annual meeting in Davos,
Switzerland. He defined it this way: " It is characterized by a fusion of
technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and
biological spheres. "
In the automotive and mobility world, Industry 4.0 encompasses
innovations such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, cloud
computing and the network of connected sensors known as the
" Industrial Internet of Things. " Additive manufacturing, better known
as 3D printing, is part of it, as are robotics and cybersecurity.
In this issue of Shift, we journey beyond the vehicle as a discrete
product and place it in the context of a transportation ecosystem
undergoing tremendous change because of digitalization.
The entire logistics chain, from factories to warehouses and from
shipyards to delivery trucks, is evolving. In " Laser Focus " on Page 18,
Pete Bigelow explores how lidar sensors are being used in applications
much broader than self-driving vehicles. Bigelow and writer Dale Buss
later examine how vehicle automation and electrification are changing
the way food and other goods are transported and delivered.
Industry 4.0 also extends to the relationship between the car buyer
and the factory. As writer Jack Keebler tells us in " Connected by a
'Digital Thread' " on Page 10, each can assist the other long after the
sale, by inspiring continuous production and product improvements
through the exchange of data. It's a topic we explored in depth during
the Automotive News Shift Mobility Forum, held during January's
CES, an event that underwent its own digital transformation this year
because of the coronavirus.
If a year of enduring a pandemic has shown us anything, it's the vast
possibilities that open up when the digital and the human converge.

4

Leslie J. Allen
Editor
lallen@crain.com

shift * march 2021

STAFF
Editor
Leslie J. Allen
Chief of Editorial Operations
Dave Versical
Chief Content Officer
Jamie Butters
Managing Editor
Mary Beth Vander Schaaf
Deputy Mobility Editor
Pete Bigelow
Reporters
Yang Jian
Hannah Lutz
Alexa St. John
Copy Editors
Amy Butters
Tim Good
Elizabeth Hardy
Cindy Orosco-Wright
Contributors
Dale Buss
Jack Keebler
Design Director
Steve Massie
Associate Publisher
Karen Rentschler
Shift Magazine - March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Shift Magazine - March 2021
