Not just the taxis, the whole car industry is about to go through a revolution, not to dissimilar in scale and impact as the industrial revolution.
This is going to impact on all of us in different ways, please let us explain…
First with taxis…
We all know Uber are at an advanced stage with driver-less technology for taxis. And give it another 5 – 10 years and driver-less taxis will be a normal everyday occurrence.
Technology in this case, isn’t going to serve well those of us, who currently make a living as taxi drivers though. Taxi company owners will be forced to adopt the new driverless technology, just to keep themselves competitive against the likes of Uber. Or go out of business.
But we must think bigger and further into the future, to see the real picture…
Think of a world where no one owns a car, and all we do is rent a transportation service like taxis.
At the push of a button or a thought in our head (through some kind of wearable device) a driverless vehicle turns up wherever you are, takes you to wherever you want to go, and then drives off to fulfill someone else’s request.
Think of a world where your children will never have to take a driving test, and the minimum driving age is abolished, as nobody actually drives anymore.
The effect on car dealerships and oil companies, such as BP and Shell will be huge. Not to mention a whole host of associated industries, reliant on us drivers.
The car manufacturers will likely be the big winners in this, and will own the monthly subscription contracts directly with you or me.
Dealerships selling cars will be a thing of the past, as you’ll simply sign up via an app on a mobile or on another futuristic wearable device.
The car manufacturers will be calling all the shots, even the big oil giants will be left reeling.
Costs of running the service will become the most important factor. And manufacturers will constantly strive to improve efficiency and reduce downtime. Resulting in cars operating off the cheapest most abundant substances possible. First electricity with batteries, then may be hydrogen and ultimately could it be water?
As we’ve seen in the latest battery operated cars, mechanics and moving parts are kept to a minimum. And this trend will continue, getting rid of complexity, bringing down maintenance costs and increasing road time.
Even the teams of people working on the car production lines are not safe from this technology advancement. Cars will become cheaper and easier to assemble with less moving parts, opening the way for robots to take over the entire production line. Even production line management and factory management will eventually become robot controlled.
The car industry is a great example to use about the future, as we can all see it’s starting to happen right now with Uber.
But the car industry is not alone!
Think about the sector you operate in, and how robots, advanced software and advanced technology could impact on it. For better or worse.
We think about the future of the office solutions sector. And what the office of the future will look like.
Technology advancements such as, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are already here and taking the jobs of office administration people. Making organisations more competitive by saving them up to 60% on salaries.
Will technology advance so much, that the robots run it all, and the only jobs left will be serving them?
Professor Stephen Hawking certainly thinks so!
For some, the future will be scary, but for others, it will be exciting and they will embrace it.
The challenge though for all of us, is to stop the robots taking over and to find where we fit in to all of this!
