CC1803

INDUSTRYfocus
between several hundred computers.
Still in its infancy, the security aspects
of data mining are being considered as
viable cyber security weapons in other
secretive industries and organisations.
THE IMPACT OF DRIVERLESS
VEHICLES
No pun intended (although it is a
serious issue) the development of
driverless vehicles will have a profound
impact on the way we live, urban
planning, the transport infrastructure,
and how we manage information -
which is why future developments hold
so much interest for IFS.
Autonomous vehicles can follow a
route, drive along the road adhering to
highway regulations, and react to
vehicles, people and other obstacles by
generally avoiding them. But that
misses a trick by a wide margin. They
will come into their own by tapping into
the city's 3D model, and using AI,
together with thousands of other
connected vehicles, giving the
autonomous vehicles the information
they need to plot the quickest and most
convenient routes between two points.
The trend toward online shopping for
groceries and other goods will
accelerate as fewer people will own
cars, and online deliveries will
commence in warehouses with orderpicking
robots, delivered by
autonomous vehicles, utilising the latest
routing information, 24 hours a day. The
first casualties of this autonomous
revolution will be harassed and
overworked delivery and courier drivers
working for companies like Hermes and
DHL etc.
So, here's a question for you. Why are
companies like Google talking about
developing their own autonomous
vehicles? It might be a fresh market, but
the main reasons people run cars are to
pick up the weekly groceries,
commuting to work and taking holidays.
If the need to own an expensive lump of
metal is reduced, then people will join
carsharing schemes or rely on improved
public transport systems. There are two
simple answers - companies like Google
and Amazon will have access to the
huge amount of personal information
that they will reap from their customers,
and the ability to widen the audience for
the billions of dollars' worth of
advertising revenues they pick up from
the adverts they run online.
Imagine booking an autonomous taxi
using your mobile, and discovering that
the fare to get you from A to B is
relatively cheap, but heavily subsidised
by the onboard entertainment system
which has your undivided attention for
the whole of your journey.
INFORMATION IS THE KEY
While the technologies that enable
renewable energies and driverless
vehicles steam ahead, the real driver
that makes them viable is the availability
of the huge amount of information they
need. It will provide wider and more
diverse methods of producing and
distributing electricity, to sample,
forecast and reroute it through a
complex nationwide web, and for
autonomous vehicles to create
connected swarms of intelligent cars,
lorries and buses, which will use AI to
plot routes taking into account the
movements of other vehicles.
We have no problem accumulating the
information that such systems will need.
What we will have problems with is
sorting out the useful information from
the chaff. Information management will
be a fascinating vocation for anyone
entering the computer industry as,
mishandled, it starts to control our lives,
with the recent Facebook and
Cambridge Analytica revelations
standing as prime examples.
Information management is also the
focus of much of the resources that IFS
has embedded in its applications, going
well beyond the requirements of BIM, and
developing solutions around efficient
management of asset information for the
maintenance of infrastructure and
construction projects worldwide.
Why so much interest in future
technologies right now? That's a simple
question to answer. Ten years ago,
many of the technologies we are seeing
coming to fruition today were still
considered science fiction. In another
ten years they will be prevalent and
presaging yet further developments.
The construction industry plans at least
a decade ahead, and builds for multiple
decades. All major construction
projects, therefore, have to consider the
changing environments for
infrastructure, urban living and people's
living and working habits, and factor it
into their city plans.
It was a fascinating discussion, but we
could have extended it further to cover
transport plans for the industry, the
inevitable growth of public transport,
and the slow pace of change in the
railway industry (save for Crossrail). Nor
did we have time to cover the conflict
between urban housing development,
global warming and sustainable
housing, with problems like those faced
by the water utilities, who have to
consider that we have enough water,
but not necessarily in the right place at
the right time.
We both agreed, though, that we are
on a rapidly accelerating escalator, with
technology advances acting as a
catalyst for major demographic and
social changes. And, according to
Colin, some of the biggest changes will
occur in Infrastructure developments,
as we try to balance energy resources
with changing energy requirements,
and to upgrade the road and rail
infrastructure to service the demands of
urban populations who live and shop
online, and share driverless vehicles
when they need to emerge from their
crowded condos.
Information management is the key.
Google can handle trillions of pages of
data. The management of a smart city,
involving analytics, demographics and
transport management is small beer in
comparison.
www.ifsworld.com
March/April 2018 25