Last Week in #LogisticsTech

Another week filled with Logistics innovations

Each week, the future of the automotive industry and of how we buy and use cars is illuminated further by major announcements. This week is no different. Tesla announced that it will be getting in on the ride-sharing action.

More details to come early next year, but what we already do know is that according to Musk’s “Master Plan, Part Deux” (revealed in July), the idea is that one could add his/her autonomous Tesla to a shared Tesla fleet via a phone app. This would allow Tesla owners to generate income and lower ownership costs.

Stuck in traffic? You can pass to the left or, heck, just go ahead fly above the cars. The company, Vahana, revealed plans for its autonomous aerial vehicles that they believe will create vertical cities- solving problems of traffic and safety.

Flight regulations and technology (or lack thereof) have always been a bummer for innovators in the industry, but the times are changing and flight is catching up to tech of the time. Vahana aims to be the first certified passenger aircraft without a pilot — with a vehicle on the market by 2020. Not only will adding a localized sky transportation fleet make getting people and cargo from point A to point B faster and safer, it would also be super cool.

Hear what Rodin Lyasoff, CEO of Airbus’ A3 Innovation Outpost, has to say about these plans in his Medium post.

Drones are great and all, but we still have regulation and tech obstacles to overcome before drones are solving all the problems rather than just recording snazzy aerial videos.

One drone difficulty is maintaining enough power so that it can stay airborne across long distances. Scientists at the Imperial College of London, though, are solving that problem. They have demonstrated a method for wirelessly transferring power to drones while they are still in flight. Using magnets, copper and other sciencey things, this tech could make charging drones much easier and more convenient.

It could also be used to transfer power from drones to objects on the ground. For example, a sensor on a bridge could be easily charged — allowing the bridge’s structural integrity to be consistently monitored without requiring humans to take on the difficult and time-consuming task of manually maintaining those sensors.

This technology is still experimental, but it is a promising potential solution to a puzzling problem. (Alliteration is fun.)

Blockchain (You know... that thing that most of us talk about but don’t really know what we’re talking about.) is taking on trade in a 7000 mile experiment. The goal of this experiment: to eliminate the massive amounts of paperwork, time, and human error that have thus far been unavoidable during trade transactions.

Each phase of the transaction will be coded into a smart contract, and as certain conditions are met, the next phase in the sequence will be automatically triggered. Therefore taking a cumbersome process and making it into an easy, accurate, automatic and fraud-proof process. All the things #LogisticsTech.

This sounds like a major advancement that could certainly change global trade, but it’s not all smooth sailing from here. Even if this tech works, legal and regulatory issues stand in the way. So it goes.

What are your thoughts on this past week’s #LogisticsTech news? Let us know in the comments.

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