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machine learning, wireless communication, and software applications and algorithms—just to name a few. How do we get them all to “play well together”? How we answer that question will deeply influence our approach to autonomy in the future. Should there be an open platform that companies can plug into and create their own apps for specific purposes? This would be analogous to the way many apps have been developed based on Apple’s iOS operating system.

In my view, a common operating system for auton-
omous vehicles that would facilitate “plug and play”
applications will be critical. Such an overlaying archi-
tecture would prevent vehicles—whether drones,
trucks, delivery bots, or anything else—from operat-
ing in conflict with each other. Common standards
would provide the ability to gather information from
any kind of sensor, make sense of that data, and
respond in a way that is predictable and conforms
to established norms. For safety’s sake it will also be
important to build in algorithms that govern how a
vehicle will react or behave in specific situations or
environments.

At the same time, companies will also need to keep on top of the new complementary market opportunities that are forming around autonomous vehicle technologies. This “ecosystem” of business opportunities will be discussed in more detail in an upcoming article, but briefly, they include:

b Manufacturing—designing and manufacturing autonomous vehicles at scale

b Traffic management—developing the technology and monitoring the safe operation of vehicles

b Parking and toll infrastructure—providing parking locations for autonomous vehicles and developing toll-collection systems

b Inventory, maintenance, and fueling—managing electronics and parts inventory for autonomous vehicles; training and providing skilled labor for repair and upkeep of autonomous vehicles; and developing and operating fueling stations for the vehicles

b Asset financing—providing appropriate financing for autonomous vehicles

[THE COMING AGE OF AUTONOMY: HOW ROBOTICS WILL RESHAPE THE FUTURE OF LOGISTICS]

[FIGURE 3] FRAMEWORK FOR SELECTING USE CASES

This framework can be used for selecting use cases for air and ground autonomous vehicles, progressing from low to high complexity. It shows seven different categories for assessing complexity: operations type; topology type; control type (whether the flights operate within visual line of sight or beyond line of sight); payload; functional use (or the number of functions and technologies that are integrated into the vehicle); movement type; and how many assets are in motion.