- Have you ever flown an aerial drone
or ridden to work in a self-driving car?
Well, neither have I.
And for most people
autonomous vehicles aren't part of our day to day lives,
yet.
But for supply chains,
autonomous vehicles and drones are already
doing a lot of work behind the scenes.
In this video,
we'll start with some basics about autonomous vehicles
and then we'll examine
where AVS fit into our digital transformation.
An autonomous vehicle is a mobile robot that can travel
without a human giving it real time instructions.
Sometimes they're programmed to follow a specific route
and sometimes they can just choose a route on their own.
And many of them can communicate with a human operator
and update their route during a journey.
Now, when it comes to drones,
we usually think of unmanned aerial vehicles,
but there are also drones that operate on land
and move across the water.
In many cases these drones can move faster
than human operated vehicles.
They can work longer hours
and they can replan their roots quickly
when they receive new input.
For example,
there are small autonomous robots
that travel back and forth inside of warehouses
to move pallets of goods.
And there are large autonomous semi trucks
that can haul freight on highways.
Drones can also be useful for inspecting facilities
in remote or dangerous environments.
And drones are becoming very useful
for delivering emergency medical supplies
in remote areas or after natural disasters.
As we move through a digital transformation,
we should think about the kinds of vehicles
that are used to move people and materials
at each step of the way.
From factories to distribution centers and consumers.
And about all of the people that are involved
in operating those vehicles.
The more closely you look at all of the vehicles we use,
the easier it is to see how autonomous vehicles
could ultimately transform our supply chains.