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Heather Jarvis-Gann
Transportation Management
March 19, 2016
Dino Scott
Transportation of the Future
The future is something hard to imagine. Television and movies have tried hard to bring
innovative ideas into reality. Such ideas include automatic opening/closing doors or wireless
communicators like on Star Trek and self-lacing shoes like in Back to the Future. Each time a person
enters a grocery store, they experience those automatic opening/closing doors. Each time a cell phone is
answered and there is a voice on the other end, they are experiencing that wireless communicator. Now
Nike has developed a self-lacing shoe. What will be next?
In Supply Chain Management, that is the big question. What will be next in the future of
transportation, in international movement of goods, and in trade partnerships with other countries?
Look at one of the most popular forms of transportation – movement of freight by truck.
Kristi Montgomery discusses the possible use of unmanned vehicles in her article titled “Will
Emerging Tech Drive the Next Generation of Supply Chain Success?” where she mentions using drones
for managing the yard, warehouse maintenance, and observing work on videos. However, Ms.
Montgomery doesn’t mention the use of unmanned trucks on the roads moving freight. Trucks deliver
large quantities of product from one coast to another coast but limitations are placed on the driver due
to the human factor. Now, what happens if the human factor is removed? Does insurance become
cheaper because there are fewer human mistakes?
First, there would have to be significant government regulation in place. Second, the price of the
self-driving car would need to be lower than it is now in order to make it a feasible financial option. The
technology is here and we have luxury cars that drive themselves on the road right now. In 2011,
Nevada was the first state to enact law regarding autonomous cars and several states have followed
suit. NCSL link There is a driver-assisted parking option on several models of cars. There is an emergency
the preferred method of our transportation future.
