In the United States alone, drivers spend roughly 160 million hours every day on the road. 1 With the environmental costs of fuel usage and the approximately 1.25 million road traffic deaths every year globally, 2 the costs imposed by today’s transportation industry are staggering. Roughly 1.2 billion vehicles operate on this planet every day. Telecom’s place in the changing mobility landscape They need to prepare today, not only for the surge in demand for connectivity but for the emergence of fundamentally new roles that telecom companies will likely be required to play for the future of transportation to fulfill its enormous potential. Telecom companies are likely just as integral to the evolving transportation ecosystem as any automaker, tech giant, or urban planner. Underpinning it all is a mesh of smart devices, network connectivity, and content and experiences delivered in ways that were previously unimaginable, from hailing a taxi to streaming Linda’s favorite movie, and from ordering a cake to paying for her trip-compelling and seamless experiences enabled by fast, reliable, omnipresent connectivity. The future of transportation systems could promise many different, highly personalized versions of trips such as Linda’s, as it would enable faster, safer, cleaner, and more efficient travel for work or play. Just ahead of the restaurant, she sees the autonomous pod waiting for her-the cake is here! Linda collects the cake from the pod and heads into Rachel’s party, right on time. She exits the station and walks the remaining three blocks to the restaurant, guided by her phone’s turn-by-turn directions. A notification pops up on her phone: Her wallet has been charged automatically for the total trip fare, as well as for the cake. An alert sounds in her earbuds shortly before she reaches the station, suggesting she get ready to disembark. Putting her headphones on, she sits back and enjoys the ride, even dozing off for a few minutes after the movie ends. The screen in front of her already has her movie cued up to play from where she left off. Her phone sends her e-ticket information to the train’s transponder, which records that she is on board and guides her to her seat. In the meantime, Linda heads into the station and directly boards the train, scheduled to leave in a few minutes. The taxi reconfigures its surround screen, sound system, and seating layout to the preferences of the next rider, waiting just down the block.
The taxi pulls up at a metro train station, and Linda gets out. The delivery is scheduled to arrive via an autonomous pod synchronized with the time of Linda’s arrival at the party. She selects a delicious-looking red-velvet cake with a birthday message for Rachel, from a bakery not far from the party. With a start, she belatedly remembers: the cake! She asks her voice-activated assistant-which typically lives on her phone but instantly synced with the taxi’s sound system when she climbed in-for assistance and scans the options that are presented to her onscreen.
The windows grow opaque and are transformed into an immersive, 360-degree surround screen, with one spot indicating the progress the vehicle is making along the route. She hops into a driverless taxi that shows up at her doorstep and settles in as the vehicle automatically cues up the film for her from the point where she paused it at home. At 40 miles away, it’s not a short distance to cover, but she isn’t concerned: Her trip has been planned out, and she can use the time to finish watching the movie she had been streaming on TV a short while earlier. Linda is excited as she prepares to head into the city for Rachel’s birthday bash. Subscribe to receive updates on the Future of Mobility
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