This Week in Logistics Tech 🔥
Minivans are apparently cool now, roads are made of plastic, Uber is Satan + more!
We talk a lot about self-driving and delivery in our logistics tech updates, but an important aspect of transporting goods that isn’t covered as often is the need for quality roads. As it stands, traditional roadways are made from crude oil-based asphalt, which makes the Earth cry. A British engineer named Toby McCartney has created a new process, though, that replaces much of this asphalt with tiny plastic pellets created from recyclable bottles. The resulting roads are apparently 60% stronger and last 10 times longer. This means less money and time spent on repairs, which means less traffic and less Earth tears.
Elon Musk has reached the point of success where he can make an entire company based on a pun and no one thinks it’s stupid. The Boring Company has released a picture of its industrial boring machine with its most literal of logos. I’m still not entirely sure Musk isn’t just trolling all of us with this Boring stuff. If he is, I’m fine with it. Musk can pretty much do whatever he wants.
In other boring news…
During the first quarter of 2017, 53.8 million sq. ft. (MSF) of space was absorbed for industrial markets. Compare that to the average absorption of 49.3 MSF during the current economic expansion, and you realize how much growth has occurred. This is in large part due to the increase of online shopping, which requires new industrial space across the country.
While I don’t think this was the goal of Waymo (but maybe…), the self-driving company is placing minivans on the cutting edge of driverless tech with its release of its 500 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans into the wild. Well, the wilds of a specified region of Arizona. Residents of Arizona can now apply to be a part of Waymo’s early rider program. Members will have daily access to the driverless fleet to travel anywhere within the allotted area that measures about twice the size of San Fran. Waymo will then be able to gather feedback and criticisms of the experience, improve their technology, and make soccer moms and dads hip to the skip.
A former Uber driver is seeking $5 million in a class action lawsuit that alleges Uber was secretly gathering data with its software program called “Hell” on how many Lyft drivers were available to give rides and what their prices were. Also according to the lawsuit, Hell could also tell if drivers were contracting for both Uber and Lyft. The court will determine if “Hell” violates the California Invasion of Privacy Act and Federal Wiretap Act.
Featured Logistics Tech Funding:
Farmdrop- a UK-based online platform that connects farmers to consumers- has raised £7 million in its Series A to further its mission to eliminate retailers/ wholesalers from the supply chain. What’s the ish with supermarkets? The nature of supermarkets requires lots of every kind of food imaginable at all times- despite season or location.
This has placed the burden on farmers to produce higher yields rather than higher quality. Aside from the negative impact this has on food quality, this has also made it very difficult for smaller and mid-sized farms to compete. The Farmdrop platform wants to change this by providing customers direct access to the highest quality farm fresh ingredients with the convenience of delivery. In turn, farmers receive a higher percentage of the final cost since they aren’t sharing those profits with a supermarket.
That’s it for me and this week’s logistics tech news.
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See you next week!
