Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
The point is not all communities are close enough to distribution centers or UPS regional operations or command enough volume for overnight deliveries, much less same day.
An autonomous vehicle fleet could do drive-by drops to some locations and other deliveries to Amazon lockers or Post Offices by leaving as soon as a reasonable load is available, following custom paths, instead of regular departures and routes. Maybe following one way cross-country, multi-stop "missions" or circuits no human driver would stand for.
In the airline business, one key metric is utilization--not just number of seats sold--but also number of daily round trips. Sometimes an airline will run a redeye route to an otherwise unprofitable, out of the way, location during time the plane would otherwise be sitting Idle. Similarly, an autonomous fleet of delivery or transport vehicles can be scheduled for extreme efficiency not possible or desirable with human operators. In particular for small cargo volumes.
The thing we are starting to see are ripples from new enabling technologies that go beyond the obvious; crop-dusting and monitoring drones in agriculture, robot cars, warehouses that track inventory location automatically... The internet of objects isn't just a Cisco series of ads; it's an ongoing transformation happening right now.
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Driverless cars are already HERE. They cost $ 150,000 and are legal in California, Texas and Florida. They require special permits in all other US States.
The one I have has lots of Voice Commands and took me three weeks to be able to use it. Plus, when Voice operations are live, passengers must be totally quiet. The Voice Commands do muffle the USB songs and they do not interfere.
So far there has never been an auto accident with a driverless car. Their radar, sensors and lasers are far better than humans in detecting hazards. A driverless car never is bothered by a drunk driver, a drowsy driver, a drugged driver or someone with poor eyesight.
There is already talk of replacing trucks and taxicabs with these vehicles and eliminating all the professional drivers. That could revolutionize those industries. It must be hurting limo drivers and private chauffeurs as well. It would definitely drive down the huge number of traffic deaths each year.