The Ex-Pentagon Analyst: DLT To Provide The Darwin Effect in Global Transport Industry
TechnologyBit News Today3 min read
According to the World Economic Forum, blockchain technology has the potential to bridge the global trade finance gap. The gap currently stands at $1.5 trillion, or 10% of merchandise trade volume. This is projected to rise to $2.4 trillion by 2025, according to calculations by the Asian Development Bank.
However, a recent study indicates that this gap could be reduced by $1 trillion simply if DLT is used more broadly. The main beneficiaries are set to be small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and emerging markets, which suffer most from a lack of access to credit and have ample room to grow their trade.
Wolfgang Lehmacher, Head of Supply Chain and Transport Industry at the World Economic Forum, puts it succinctly: “Implementing blockchain-based solutions can eventually do more for SMEs in emerging markets than removing tariffs or closing trade deals.”
Beyond its immediate commercial benefits, the advent of DLT-based systems into global trade could mark the next phase in the logistics industry's ongoing evolution. As processes get faster, costs come down, and efficiency increases, the industry could enter a period of accelerated growth as access to new markets and greater demand goes hand-in-hand.
The World Economic Forum's research comes amidst a flurry of announcements on the roll-out of automated systems in the transport sector. On 4 October 2018, the U.S. Department of Transportation released its voluntary guidance and policy considerations on automated vehicle technology, ‘Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0’ (AV 3.0).
The document, which builds upon guidance previously provided in ‘Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety,’ sets out a framework for addressing the safety challenges of autonomous vehicles at a period of rapid technological change. It acknowledges the safe integration of automated vehicle technology and the benefits it will deliver: increased productivity, facilitate freight movement, and create new types of jobs.
These changes are particularly sweeping due to ever-continuing digital networking. Connectivity has been part of every truck delivered by Mercedes-Benz since 2013. Its modern trucks, equipped with around 400 sensors, generate countless pieces of information.
Mercedes-Benz Uptime employs this, continuously monitoring the truck's technical status via the on-board Truck Data Centre and mitigating the risk of downtime or technical failures.
In the meanwhile, Volvo Cars has showcased its own vision of the future with the 360c, a fully autonomous, fully electric car without a human driver. In a release from 2018, Volvo unveils four potential uses of such a vehicle, in line with the 300 kilometre routes they predict are prime candidates for disruption by an alternative mode of travel.
However, Volvo also introduces a proposal for a global standard: safety. The company acknowledges how autonomous vehicles can safely communicate with all other road users, and how creating safety systems will be a priority for a secure adoption of autonomy.
Elsewhere, Uber has thrown its weight behind another emerging mode of transport: on-demand aerial ridesharing. Hosted at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, the 2nd annual Uber Elevate Summit brought together more than 800 leaders in the field.
However, ground-based disruption is not far from reaching impressive levels. By the end of the month, Waymo announced it was due to cross 7 billion miles driven in its virtual world (that's 10 million miles every single day). This comes after completing its 1st million miles, a feat that took six years.
Waymo has been able to push the frontier thanks to its considerable computational power and simulation capabilities. The company has managed to identify the tiniest details and built this into a core competency.
Such achievements represent the cutting edge of artificial intelligence in the transport sector – combined with Waymo's physical test driving in 25 U.S. cities, which includes the snowy streets of Michigan, steep hills of San Francisco, and the desert conditions of Greater Phoenix.
