Name: Insights: How Technology Is Transforming Transportation
Uploaded: 2020-03-11
Duration: 6 min 48 s
Description: From cars to planes to scooters. (July 2019)

[MUSIC PLAYING] MICHAL LEV-RAM: We like to talk about inflection points in the tech industry. And we've been talking about transportation for a while and the many different ways that it is being disrupted. What and when is the inflection point in transportation from your points of view? Ken? KEN WASHINGTON: Well, I think it's a great question because we all kind of feel it. And so my view is, we've hit the inflection already. Now, we're riding the next S curve. It's just a question of how long will that S curve evolve until it plateaus and we're ready for the next one. But we are clearly on the next automotive S curve. You know that Ford is 116-year-old company. And I would say for the first you know 110 of those 116 years, not a lot changed. It was a sophisticated, complex machine that required a lot of complex manufacturing, and design, and care, and testing, and validation. But over the last six years, three things have really happened that have put us on this new S curve of innovation. The first is connectivity. Everything changes when you connect devices to the internet, to David's point. And cars are no different. So when you connect cars to the internet, the experience changes. You can update them over the air. You can pipe new entertainment to the vehicle. You can do diagnostics and prognostics on the equipment to change the experience of how you actually maintain the vehicle. How you sell the vehicle can change. So connectivity changed everything, and it's going to continue to change everything in automotive. The second big thing that happened is automation. So autonomy-- and I say automation because I don't want to leave the audience with the impression that this is only about level 4 autonomous vehicles, although that's a huge part of our strategy as well as it is in the other companies. But automation in the automotive industry is happening in lots of places, including consumer vehicles that we sell that have automation that help you drive and help keep you safe-- automatic braking, lane centering, highway assist, blind spot monitoring. That's only going to get better with advanced sensing and advanced compute. And then the third thing that's happened that's revolutionized-- to put automotive industry that's put us on this new S curve is electrification. So the fact that batteries have come down in price. There's a worldwide now, with a few unfortunate exceptions, acceptance of the fact that we have to address climate change. And we have to unlock the mystery of how to build, and design, and sell better electric vehicles that are profitable. That last bit of mystery is going to really rocket ship us into this next S curve. So I think we're already on it. Cars aren't the only mode of mobility that is the solution in cities. And we definitely believe that. And you know, we as a company are strong believer that the solution in cities has to involve a new design. It has to involve a new design using multiple modes of mobility. And cities, why should the experience of being mobile and getting around in an urban environment be any different than the revolution that's happened in other parts of our lives? You know, digital has come into our homes. They're smart. And so cities should be the same way. And you're starting to see a lot of energy and a lot of effort to invest in redesigning city streets, putting intelligent streetlights in place, making parking garages smart, enabling the parking lanes to be used for multiple purposes. And if we think about the design of those future environments, we should be designing our vehicles, our cars, our scooters, our public transportation systems to all interoperate in a smart and intelligent way. MICHAL LEV-RAM: Where are you seeing these changes? Because at least in the US, I haven't been to many cities that look very different from the way they looked 10 years ago. AICHA EVANS: Well, I think we're going to have to earn it. I mean, a lot of us are citizens. And we know that there's not some big pool of money that's going to come in and change these cities to whatever it is, and then we provide transportation. What I love about the approach that Zoox is taking is that, by having this vehicle-- and experience is extremely important. We don't call it a car because it isn't a car. It doesn't have a steering wheel. And it feels like you're walking into a living room. It's very practical in terms of pooling. You have two doors that just slide out on either side of the vehicle. And you can step in, as opposed to climbing on top of each other. It's electric. And it's designed to run all day long so that when you're not using it, somebody else is using it as opposed to being idle and depreciating 96% of the time. So I think by launching now, in a contained way-- this is not going to be one of those that all of a sudden you see 20,000 scooters in Paris, yeah. SPEAKER: Well, you might. AICHA EVANS: No. I think it'll take a-- it'll be a little bit more gradual. KEN WASHINGTON: I think it's really important for us to be very clear that this-- the adoption rate of fully autonomous ride services for either packages or people is going to be gradual. And it's going to happen region by region. So the leading AV players have all selected the regions they want to go to first. And it's very explicit. You know, in the case of Ford, we have said very explicitly we're going to do an initial AV ride service in Miami and then in Washington, DC. And we're going to name a third city later on. And so that's just three cities. So there are hundreds of cities in this country. And there are other countries that have the same need for new mobility solutions. So the adoption is going to be gradual, which is why I really don't think it's helpful for us to over index the conversation on level 4 autonomy in urban environments. You have to talk about the broader revolution around transportation, which includes micro mobility. It includes making our consumer-bought vehicles safer and better experiences with advanced driver assist technologies like highway assist and level 3 autonomy. And it includes things like scooters and integrating scooters in with other mobility solutions. So all of it comes together as a systems play. That's, I think, our responsibility as innovators in this space. [MUSIC PLAYING] 

Insights: How Technology Is Transforming Transportation

Uncategorized

Technology Is Transforming Transportation

From cars to planes to scooters. (July 2019)

way like to talk about inflection points in the tech industry, and we've been talking about transportation for a while and the many different ways that it is being disrupted. What and when is the inflection point in transportation? From your point of view, you can. Why do you give a great question? Because we all kind of feel it. And I thought, My view is we've hit the inflection already. Now we're writing the next skirt. It's just a question of how long will that Esseker evolve until it plateaus and we're ready for the next one but were clearly on the next automotive. That's curve. You know, that Ford of the 116 year old company. And I would say for the first you know, 110 of those 116 years Not a lot changed, You know, the sophisticated, complex machine that required a lot of complex manufacturing and design and care and and testing invalidation. Um, but over the last six years, three things have really happened that it put us on this new s curve of innovation. The first is connectivity. Everything changes when you connect devices to the Internet to David's point and cars are no different. So you connect our Internet. The experience changes. You can update them over the air. You can pipe new entertainment to the vehicle. You can do diagnostics and prognostic on the equipment to change the change. The experience of how you actually maintain the vehicle, how you sell the vehicle can change. So connectivity changed changed everything, and it's going to continue to change everything in automotive. The second big thing that happened is automation, so autonomy and I say automation because I don't want to leave the audience with the impression that this is only about level for autonomous vehicles, although that's a huge part of our strategy as well as it is, you know, other companies. But automation in the automotive industry is happening in lots of places, including consumer vehicles that we sell that have automation that helped you drive and help keep you safe. Automatic braking lane centering highway, blind spot monitoring. That's only going to get better with advanced sensing an advanced computer and then the third thing that happened, it's revolutionized to put automotive industry that put us on the new S curve is electrification. So the fact that batteries have come down in price. There's a worldwide now with a few unfortunate exceptions acceptance of the fact that we have to address climate change. And we have to unlock the mystery of how to build and design and sell better that your vehicles that are profitable. That last bit of of mystery. It's gonna really rocket ship is into this next semester. So I think we're already on it. Cars aren't the only motive ability, that is the solution in cities. And, you know, we definitely believe that. And I I am. You know, we as a company are strong believer that that the solution and cities have to involve a new design involving new design using multiple modem ability and cities. You know, Why should I? Why should the experience of being mobile and getting around in an urban environment be any different than the revolution that happened in other parts of our lives digitally have come into our homes? They're smart, and so city should be the same way, and you're starting to see a lot of energy and a lot of effort to invest in redesigning city streets, putting intelligence streetlight in place, making parking garages smart, enabling three parking lanes to be used for multiple purposes. And if we think about the design of those future environments, we should be designing our vehicles, our cars, our scooters, our public transportation systems toe all inter operate in a smart Where are you seeing these changes? Because at least in the U. S. I haven't been too many cities that look very different from the way they look 10 years ago. Well, I think we're gonna have to earn it. I mean, all of a lot of us citizens, we know that there's not some big full of money that's gonna come in and change these cities to whatever it is. And then we provide transportation. When I love about the approach that Luke is taken is taking is that by having this vehicle and experience is extremely important, we don't call it a car because it is in the car. It doesn't have a steering wheel. It feels like you're walking into a living room. It's very practical in terms of pulling. You have two doors that just slide out on either side of the vehicle and you can step in as opposed to climbing on top of each other. It's electric and designed to run all day long so that when you're not using it, somebody else is using it, as opposed to being idle and depreciating 96% of the time. So I think by by launching now in a contained way, this is not gonna be one of those that all of a sudden and you see 20,000 scooters in Paris Yeah, no, I think it'll take. It'll be a little bit more gradual. I think it's really important for us to, um, be very clear that this adoption rate of fully autonomous rights service is for the packages or people is going to be gradual and, um and it's going to happen region by region. So the leading A V players have all selected the regions they want to go to first, and it's very explicit, you know, case of Ford, we have said very explicitly, we're going to do an initial A V right service in Miami and then in Washington, D. C. And we're gonna name 1/3 city later, later, later on. So that's just three cities. So there are hundreds of cities in this country and their other countries that have the same need for new mobility solutions. So the adoption is going to be gradual, which is why I really don't think it's helpful for us to over index the conversation on level for autonomy in urban environment. You have to talk about the broader revolution around transportation, which includes micro mobility. It includes making our consumer bought vehicles safer and better experiences with advanced drivers. Technologies like, you know, highway assist on Level three autonomy. And it includes things like you know, scooters and integrating scooters in with with other mobility solutions. So all of it comes together as a systems play that I think our responsibility is innovators in this space.