I remember when Lexus introduced a car a couple of years ago that would parallel park itself. A high-end feature for a high-end car. But like most technology, what starts at the high end almost always just begins the race to replicating that technology throughout the industry, and “parking assist,” as it is now referred, has been no exception.
Tonight I saw an ad during the trailer for the movie Horrible Bosses (http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/horriblebosses/) for, get this, a Ford Focus (http://money.cnn.com/video/luxury/2011/05/04/lux_ford_focus.cnnmoney/) that now parks itself. Man that was fast. In a period of just a couple of years, the automotive industry found a way to drive the price of that super cool technology down so far as to make it available on the plainest of the plainest vehicles, one that is affordable for almost anyone. Now that’s what I call a success!
But wait a minute. That may be only the beginning. While Tata Motors (http://www.tatamotors.com/) works on getting the “parking assist” technology in their $2500 lawn mower engine-driven car, there is another race going on, one that intends to make fully automated vehicles the next revolutionary productivity breakthrough. Turns out that Rio Tinto (http://www.riotinto.com/), the giant global mining company was having trouble finding drivers for its massive mining dump trucks, the ones that haul all the loot from the mine to the processing plant. No drivers (for whatever reason – no qualified candidates, labor disruption, etc.) means no product movement, a big expensive problem. Hmm….they thought, how can we solve that problem? Technology to the rescue. Rio Tinto decided to experiment with automating the operation of these giant trucks. They equipped 10 of them with automation technology and intend to operate all 10 simultaneously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with only 1 operator per shift. If it works, and my guess is it will work – if not at first, then soon - that’s a ten-to-one workforce reduction, salary, benefits, sick days, vacations and all.
For the full story, check out this link http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10001424052702304259304576372892652648426,00.html
What are the ramifications if Rio Tinto is successful with their automated Dump Trucks? Huge! Think about all the trucking, earth moving, garbage compacting, road building and excavating that goes on around the world every day relying on high-paid skilled employees, and everything that comes along with that. Now think about all of that happening in a controlled, air-conditioned command center, staffed by 1/10th (or less) of the people, and it doesn’t take long to see how powerful, and profitable, the possibilities could be.
Having a car park itself, the height of WOW just a couple of years ago, suddenly somehow seems so, well, yesterday.
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