Off to the Farm

For a couple of days, its harvest time!

Let me recap what I see in the transportation markets. Reading the comments on blogs regarding the Nevada idea of "Pay for Speed", I find that commenters are just now getting the connection between toll roads and vehicle technology like lane guidance.

Soon consumers will get the whole connection, that speed and efficiency is safe with the new technology. The problem with Pay for Speed is the other drivers, the one who do not pay and who do not have lane guidance in their cars. These folks are the problem and the reason we have to curb off the advanced traffic on high speed tollways. That education process is taking place, especially among the transportation research groups.

Crowd sourcing in transportation, getting people to reveal where they are and where they are going, is the big thing right now. But those applications should quickly merge into the general application of semi-autonomous driving technology. Once the new applications are visible I expect a huge demand for high speed and lower latencies; demands that local transit agencies will satisfy with private toll road operators.

California is full speed ahead in converting diamond lanes into toll lanes. These toll lanes will be a popular testing ground for the lane guidance and collision avoidance technology that is now optional on many new cars.

One key here are the insurance companies, they have to continue pounding the safety features of semi-autonomous driving. Once the consumer tries out the autonomous features at high speed, then the deal is done and the revolution takes place.

Let me summarize:
Drivers will love the networked semi-autonomous car. Insurance companies will love the black box. The driver then demands speed, simply because he relies on lane guidance and collision avoidance. This results in a demand for curbing the toll lanes; yields the transportation revolution.