With the fast advent of autonomous vehicles, can it help to create sustainable, decentralized, and prosperous world?
Well, turns out autonomous transport is a building block for the so called energy and physical internets.
Like other Next Big Things simultaneously emerging nowadays (that I will report on next posts), energy and physical internets will become a game changer for modern economy and geopolitics.
Energy Internet is a decentralized peer-to-peer network of buildings that produce, store and share renewable energy with other buildings across the distributed power grid and portable power lines.
Here is a video explaining briefly what energy internet is:
Physical Internet consists of 2 parts.
First part of physical internet is a decentralized logistics network of electric autonomous transport fleet (including autonomous cars, trucks, drones, and airplanes) delivering people, packages and power across the highly optimized cost and time efficient routes. Autonomous electric transport serves as a portable power line for energy internet.
This fascinating article on mind-blowing implications of driverless future delves into detailed analysis of how the future will change with physical internet around.
Second part of the physical internet consists of a decentralized network of manufacturers (including in-house producers) storing and sharing goods across the logistics network.
Today network of manufacturers exists in the form of private partnership database of mostly Chinese producers and factories. Physical Internet can help creative tech entrepreneur quickly build the prototype and test it on the market for a fraction of today’s cost.
This platform will revolutionize the whole concept of innovation, with near instant and almost costless prototyping, distribution and market feedback, that is essential for successful innovation.
Energy and Physical Internets will create sustainable and decentralized production and distribution of power and goods, as well as make transportation safer, faster, cheaper and cleaner.
Imagine This
Imagine being able to power your house/facility with in-house generated electricity, and earn income from selling spare power to your neighbours by transporting it through autonomous vehicles.
Imagine a time when you can open your own production line from your house using AI robot that will assemble and package your goods, and then delivering it to your customers through physical internet.
Imagine that you can test any entrpreneurial idea in literally a day through rapid prototyping on one of many production lines connected to the physical internet at near zero cost (just 5-10 items) and get instant feedback from customers. How fast can your business progress?
And most importantly, all of this democratized manufacturing, supply-chain, transport and energy production is environmentally sustainable.
These networks have already been being built in parts of Europe and China as we speak. If you'd like to aquaint yourself more with this concept, please watch this fascinating talk on the advent of "Third Industrial Revolution:
What a future ahead of us!