Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - November 2022 - 22

Emerging Technologies
who are in their early thirties today grew up along with
mobile phones. When they got their first cars, I asked
them what they would give up first - their phones or
their cars. Without hesitation, they both said their cars.
I concluded the accessibility they gained from their
phone was more valuable to them than that gained from
their cars. And the impact of mobile phones goes far
beyond how they have transformed accessibility.
Fig. 5: The future of accessibility.
I shopped on Amazon Prime. It was delivered to my
porch in 18 hours at a cost of $5.60 including shipping.
My round-trip travel cost to the store (not including
my time cost) would have been $5.00 (6 miles at $0.83
per mile, per AAA). In essence, my tandoori seasoning
cost me just $0.60!
E-commerce has fundamentally enhanced accessibility
by providing a new way to access most goods.
Today, we can buy things from almost anywhere in the
world at any time online and have them delivered to
our homes. While transportation plays a key role in
e-commerce, we do not have to travel to shop. And not
having to make trips to stores saves a lot more time
than being able to travel to stores faster.
Consider video conferencing. Before the
pandemic took hold in early 2020, I was making
around 40 business trips per year to engage with
clients. In 2022, with the same number of clients, I did
my job making just 10 business trips. What changed?
Out of necessity, videoconferencing was embraced
by businesses as an alternative to travel, and in turn,
virtual meeting service quality improved.
For many people and businesses, videoconferencing
has enabled remote work, with a corresponding
reduction in commuting. While it remains to be seen
where business travel and remote work are headed,
videoconferencing has clearly enhanced access to work
and impacted whether, when and how a lot of people
travel to their jobs. As with e-commerce, not having
to commute to work even one day per week saves a lot
more time than being able to commute faster.
How about mobile phones? My two daughters
The greatest competitive threat
Substantial innovation occurred between 1980 and
2010 to transform how we use our time, yet little
occurred to change how we move around. While
digital-age companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google
and Amazon enhanced accessibility, auto companies
mainly fixated on features which did little to improve
accessibility. This is remarkable, given that accessibility
remains the fundamental value proposition
for owning a vehicle. In fact, prior to 2010 (when
ride-hailing and AV technology surfaced), the last
significant innovation to improve accessibility from
automobiles was the U.S. Interstate System launched
by President Eisenhower in 1956!
Today, the future of accessibility is resulting from
the convergence of transportation, communication
and information innovation (Fig. 5).
Communication is being advanced by 5G cellular
networks, augmented and virtual reality, streaming,
voice recognition, human holograms and remote
prognostics. And, information is being driven by
quantum computing, digital twins, systems-on-chips,
artificial intelligence/machine learning, advanced
analytics and cloud-based platforms. Each of these
innovations is significant individually. But when integrated
with automobility, their impact on accessibility
is profound (Fig.6).
Because buying a vehicle is akin to buying accessibility,
the biggest competitive threat to an auto company
is not another auto company. Rather, it is how the digital
age will reshape how people move around and interact.
Auto-industry leaders should not take solace from
having positioned their companies for automobility.
As big as this change is for all facets of the industry, the
future of accessibility could be an even bigger disrupter.
22 November 2022
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Burns
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - November 2022

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