To enable the functioning of new technologies in the transport sector, certain operations and laws need to be changed. One example of this is the need for change in local parking laws. Why do you think this could be?

Find out about what needs to change to enable these new technologies from Level5design’s Larry Schneider at IPWEA’s workshop on March 13th.

​See the full programme of talks here - https://pos.li/2bbnr8

Level5design are excited to work with IPWEA and a range of esteemed presenters from around Australia for a workshop on Connected Automated Vehicle & Emerging Technology, on Wednesday the 13th of March.

The workshop will cover the following topics:

• An introduction to automated connected and electric vehicles, the sharing economy, on-demand servicing and the future of mobility.
• New mobility models, car subscription, car sharing, etc. – where are things heading and what are the benefits?
• The reform process for connected and automated vehicles - what do you need to know?
• What are the manufacturers and technology suppliers doing?
• What are the local road and other community infrastructure requirements for connected and automated vehicles?
• Implementing a strategy for encouraging electric vehicles - how do we do it?
• Developing policies and procedures to encourage car sharing and ride sharing in local government. Local laws for parking - what needs to change to enable these technologies?
• Automation in construction and what it means for local government.
• Being technology ready – how do we do it and bring it all together?

​For more information, view the full programme here - https://pos.li/2bbnr8

Recent research conducted by Level5design shows speeding is the highest ranking traffic-related issue being addressed by local government and has been for over 10 years. By identifying and implementing the most effective traffic calming techniques, local area traffic management can stop speeding in its tracks. Watch this space for more useful facts and figures such as what are the most effective traffic calming techniques used in Australia and New Zealand.

Research by Level 5 Design shows bicycle facilities incorporated within local area traffic management schemes have been rated by local government as increasingly effective, but are being used less than before. Despite a 19 percentage point rise in effectiveness of bicycle facilities since 2014, there has been an equivalent decrease in their use within traffic management schemes in local communities. In fact, quite a few large metropolitan local governments state that they never build bicycle facilities into local area traffic management schemes. If these facilities are as effective as many say, surely we should be using more of them. What are your thoughts on why this could be happening?

If you knew that car sharing would provide big benefits for your family, would you sign up to it?
Car sharing is growing in popularity, but many people are still unaware of its benefits and aren’t quite sure how it works. Is it expensive? Do you pay for petrol? What happens when you’re done with the car? What about insurance? These are all relevant questions that can be easily answered if people have the right information.

The first important piece of information to know about car sharing is that it is a form of car rental but it differs from the traditional car rental approach typically used in Australia (Hertz, Avis, etc.) It is designed for convenience, and it generally appeals to people who need to use a vehicle for only short periods of time (a few hours) and want to pay for what they use as they go. It allows access to a car at any time, and in some instances with no prior booking. It can provide access to a wide range and type of vehicles from sedans through to wagons, SUVs and utes.
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So, how does it work? First, you need to find out what car sharing operators you are close to. The leading companies for car sharing in Australia are Flexicar, GreenShareCar and GoGet and all work off a similar approach of picking a plan (how many hours you want to drive), booking your car and then driving away!

Shared cars tend to come fully packaged with insurance, registration, fuel, maintenance, servicing, cleaning, etc. so there is a lot less to pay for and to worry about.

There are several different types of car sharing approaches:

1. Business to customer – this is where a commercial operator provides a service to the public: a) Free floating – vehicles are freely distributed within a defined area, e.g. a central business district. Customers can pick up the closest vehicle that is available on the street and return it to anywhere in the defined area when they are done. These services are very flexible and are good for one-way trips, or b) Return to base / stationary – vehicles are booked and picked up at a defined station location for a specific period of time. These services are great for longer and planned trips. A variation is where the commercial provider allows pick up and drop off at different stations within a region.
2. Peer-to-peer – this is where private car owners make their vehicles available to other members of the car sharing network to rent. Vehicles must be picked up and returned to a predefined location, i.e. it is a stationary service. A great home grown Australian example is CarNextDoor.
3. Business to business – this is where a commercial service is provided to a business to satisfy their fleet vehicle requirements. An example is the provision of pool cars for staff. 
4. Mixed service – this is where a commercial operator provides the same vehicles for both business and public use or between one defined area and another.

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Car sharing has the potential to make a major contribution in the transition away from Australian’s dependence on private cars. Using private cars is one of the most carbon intensive ways to get around and car sharing will increasingly become important for a nation that is edging progressively closer to accepting the benefits of partially and conditionally automated vehicles. Car sharing can be an effective part of the overall solution to improve the liveability of our cities that is likely to include electric, connected and automated technologies and other ride sharing and car subscription models.

One car share vehicle has the potential to replace between 7 – 13 privately owned cars and the parking spaces that go with them. The typical car share user travels 50% less than the driver of a privately owned vehicle, and often uses other more sustainable methods of transportation such as public transport, cycling and walking.

The cost of owning and driving a car is continuing to escalate. The latest analysis by the Australian Automobile Association (Transport Affordability Index Sep 2018) has found that the average Australian metropolitan family spends $18,221 a year on transport costs — up 4.2% on the previous year. The analysis found transport costs now represent 14.4 per cent of city family annual expenses.

With the cost of owning a car becoming increasingly expensive, car sharing can help to eliminate many of these costs and ensure that people only pay for what they use. The benefits from not providing as much parking, which is often considerably underutilised, are also significant.
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The City of Port Phillip in Victoria have been conducting studies on car sharing and have found that every dollar spent on car sharing returns $2.43 in quantifiable benefits to the community. They also estimated that there are approximately 1,000 fewer vehicles on the City’s roads today due to the 1,000 car share vehicles within its jurisdiction.

Victoria isn’t the only state to highlight the benefits of car sharing. The City of Sydney in NSW found that the benefits that car share provides outweigh the costs by a ratio of 19 to 1! This proves just how effective car sharing can be when local government actively promotes it.
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The most attractive places in our cities are walkable, bikeable and public transport friendly. Car sharing can complement these forms of transport and will provide a range of benefits in our increasingly densely populated cities, where it is more cost effective to use a car sharing service in place of owning a second car!
Other benefits of car sharing include:

• Choice of a range of different types of vehicles
• Vehicles located in the most convenient and accessible locations
• 24/7 access to late model vehicles with good safety features
• Flexible rental hire periods and membership packages
• Convenient self-service mobile bookings
• Smart vehicle access

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For car sharing to really take off, the driving and sharing culture in Australia does need to change. When it comes to our cars, we seem to prefer the privacy and intimacy of our own vehicle, and sharing, whether it be hiring out your own car or making use of a car driven by others, challenges these norms. As a nation we are becoming less attached to the places and items that we depend on, and over time this will include our privately owned vehicles.
What would convince you to try out car sharing?

For some time, our advice at Level 5 Design has been that parking lots specifically designed for self-parking cars have the potential to take up 60% less space than traditional lots. Savings can be made on parking footprint, aisle widths, ramps, ceiling heights, finishes, stairs, elevators, lighting, security, boomgates, etc.
 
Now, research from the University of Toronto in Canada has backed this up, with their new study finding that parking lots for autonomous vehicles could hold up to 62% more vehicles than current parking lots!  Not only is this good for developers, but it also means a better outcome for the driving public.

The study was done by a group of researchers who used a computer simulation to figure out the perfect size of a parking lot that had been designed specifically for autonomous vehicles. Not having to provide space for pedestrian access or for people to open their doors was taken into consideration when determining this perfect sized parking lot. The fact that connected autonomous vehicles have the ability to communicate with each other and to rearrange themselves also contributes to this outcome.
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With large areas of our cities being allocated to parking, it only seems logical that the next step should be to research and identify new and innovative approaches to improve parking and to make better use of the space currently taken up by it. Autonomous vehicles will have the ability to park themselves, which means that they could effectively park outside urban areas, thereby allowing more room for commercial development, community and recreation areas, etc. It also means that where many of our city spaces are currently dominated by the car and the car parks that serve them, we can start giving more attention to the pedestrian environment and creating more active spaces for people to live, work and play.

An indicative illustration depicting the additional capacity that a car park designed for autonomous vehicles could provide versus a conventional car park.

Self-parking technology presents the opportunity for millions of people to be dropped off right outside the front door of their buildings without ever having to go near a car park. Self-parking vehicles will be equipped with all of the technology needed to safely navigate between the drop off point at your building and a car park without human supervision. The car park may be hundreds of metres away and might be above or below ground. Providing that the car park and access roadways from the building are adequately mapped within well-defined geofenced precincts and your vehicle is properly connected to the self-parking app, then self-parking vehicles will automatically manoeuvre to the car park, find a parking space, and then autonomously park until they are summoned again later for their next journey. Self-parking vehicles will return automatically on request, and the fact that they will self-park, eliminates the hassle of having to personally drive into the car park, find a suitable parking spot, park your vehicle, and then thread your way back to your destination on foot.

While autonomous vehicles with automated valet parking (AVP) capabilities will allow us to both decrease the size of car parks and free up valuable space in otherwise built up cities, a lot does need to be done to prepare for the transition to this future and how we manage the period in-between while we have a mixture of self-parking and conventionally parked vehicles. The evolution of the technology and the requirement to provide large parking lots is going to change dramatically over the next decade.

Bosch has publicly announced a predicted launch date of its self-parking AVP technology within 3 years. Other large vehicle technology suppliers such Valeo and Continental have also announced similar product launch dates, and one significant supplier has advised us that they have proven self-parking technology available for deployment within private developments right now.
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There is definitely more work to be done to get this right and it will take many years for the technology to be rolled out as standard across the entire vehicle fleet. Nonetheless, some people will have access to the technology very soon, and having paid for a car enabled with it, they will want to use it. My view is that a dramatic change in thinking is needed right now, and those companies that start planning and designing for the introduction of self-parking technology now will reap the rewards.

​Does your company fit that description? What are your thoughts?

What is innovation and how does it apply to transport? Is Australia a nation of innovation in the transport sector or is it a follower? Are we succeeding in our endeavours and what positive insights can be revealed?

Australia has for a long time been a leading global innovator in the design and regulation of large articulated trucks as the backbone of its freight and logistics industry. This is important as Australia spends approximately twice as much of its GDP per capita on transport as the average OECD country. By being innovative in road transport it has led the nation to be much more internationally competitive with its exports on a global stage.

So are driverless vehicles the nation’s greatest opportunity for success in transport innovation? ADVI, the Australia and New Zealand Driverless Vehicles Initiative, seems to think so. They believe that Australia’s early adoption, investment and leadership in this space will dictate our international competitiveness for many decades to come.
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ADVI says these technologies will make driving easier, allow people to be more productive and offer greater mobility to a wider range of people than ever before. As a result, driverless vehicles will provide significant economic, environmental and social benefits including improving social inclusion.
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Australia was the first nation in the southern hemisphere to demonstrate autonomous vehicles on its public road system in November 2015 when Volvo demonstrated its autonomous drive technology on the Southern Expressway in Adelaide.
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Australia has the foundation for a growing industry to support the growth of automated vehicles. We already have some excellent success stories with locally grown companies like Cohda Wireless and Seeing Machines showing that we can be very effective innovators. 

Unfortunately right now there are few automated vehicle technology companies headquartered in Australia and Australian companies also hold very few patents. A recent report by KPMG also highlights other barriers to the industry in Australia including a lack of electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging stations, limited availability of 4G communications throughout Australia, and the relatively poor quality of our regional road infrastructure. Often innovation is thwarted due to these types of external barriers. An example is the electric vehicle mobility space. Electric vehicles have been slow to be embraced in Australia for a number of reasons. Purchase cost and the distance able to be travelled on a charge remain key concerns.

According to the Electric Vehicle Council, Australia is falling behind on electric vehicle uptake. While there are two million electric vehicles on the road globally, they represent less than one tenth of one per cent of the market in Australia. And yet, a July 2018 survey by ACA Research revealed that 26% of all Australian’s would be interested in buying an electric vehicle as their next vehicle. And 80% believed electric vehicles will be mainstream within 5 to 10 years.
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Will innovations in the hydrogen electric vehicle space go the same way? If we act now we can surely do better and establish a strong innovation ecosystem in hydrogen in Australia that achieves a better outcome.  

Technology growth in transport is considered by many as ‘exponential’ right now. But what creates successful technology? Steve Wozniak, one of the co-founders of Apple, says it is “experience”. If consumers use it and have a positive experience then they’ll keep using it. If they don’t then it’s time to move to something different.
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So in 2018 where does Australia stand with innovation in transport? Well we have many of the right ingredients including the talent and creativity to succeed. We also have many companies in the transport space like the RAC and Transurban that are embracing innovation and mainstreaming it into their core operations. So the future is bright but we do need to continue to implement new ideas and to build the supporting innovation ecosystem. 

See our latest article in IPWEA intouch where Larry Schneider talks on the topic of smart parking technologies. The full article can be found here and a short excerpt follows:

Although smart parking technologies can transform this experience, nationally recognised parking expert Larry Schneider says they’re a rarity in Australia.

“What I have found is that the allocation of smart city funds has not really focused on sophisticated parking technology. Which is surprising – a lot of this technology is reliable and it's proven. If it were to be installed, it would provide an immediate benefit not just on parking, but generally on access and convenience to get into cities,” he says. 

We announced in the last few days that Larry Schneider has joined Level5design to bring his many years of experience to compliment the team starting from the beginning of July.

Larry is a national expert and adviser in parking management with over 30 years’ experience in the industry. He has worked both as a Director of one of the nation’s leading parking operators and equipment suppliers, and as a senior consultant to industry on parking for airports, city centres, hospitals, shopping areas, universities, commercial buildings and office precincts for many of Australia’s largest property owners. Larry was previously the President of Parking Australia for 6 years and the Manager of Luxmoore Parking.

Larry believes strongly in sustainable parking practices, education, and in the value of technology. He has facilitated many award-winning workshops in parking operations and management, and he has wide ranging expertise that includes the development of effective parking strategies, project management of new parking technologies and facility operations, and the investigation of better approaches to wayfinding signage, security, audit and compliance. Larry has reviewed and prepared parking strategies and policies for many state government departments and more than 40 local government authorities in Australia and New Zealand.

Earlier today Peter Damen, Level5design CEO, was quoted as saying “It is really fantastic to have access to Larry and all that he brings. He is the most experienced parking professional in Australia and our clients will now directly benefit from him helping them to find more innovative and effective ways to improve their operations and generate better outcomes.” 

​If you would like to reach out to Larry he can be contacted at larrys@level5design.com.au or via 0431 508 863.

The latest 29 June 2018 edition of Big Rigs Magazine includes a feature article from me on the topic of jobs and automation in the trucking sector titled "Its time to speed up the tech for the greater good". The digital edition of the article can be viewed for free here. It is a copy of the blog and social media article that I posted back in May (scroll down a bit and you we see a copy that you can read a bit more easily titled "Innovation and Automation in the Trucking Sector").

Imagine the possibilities in a connected and automated future with zero emission driverless vehicles, self-aware artificial intelligence, conversational personal assistants, in-vehicle biometric sensors, adaptive orchestrated automation, on-demand shared and synched user experiences, and interconnected communities.  Read about what a future typical work day might be like in the year 2040.

Jessica wakes up a little earlier today as she intends to go into the office rather than working remotely, which she does at least several days per week. Jess lives in a seaside outer suburb, which is about 90 minutes’ drive from the city. Jess and her family decided to live there for the lifestyle at the beach and because the distance isn’t really an issue for her as she has the choice to work from home in a virtual environment or to make good use of the commute time by being productive on the way in. Because Jess and her family live in the outer suburbs, they still own one car but they have done away with their other car and now subscribe to an automated car sharing scheme based in their local neighbourhood. 

Her husband Craig is using their own car today and will be dropping the kids at school. As Jess is getting ready for work she asks her digital home assistant, Susan, what cars are available for her commute to work this morning. Susan scans the available options in her local car sharing network, dismisses a van and large SUV, and provides 3 options to Jess based on her previously stated personal preferences. Susan recommends a medium sized electric Ford Infinity based on what Jess selected for the same trip last time. Jess accepts the recommendation, books the vehicle for 7.30am by voice signature, and continues to get ready for work. 

Jess ends up getting ready a little early and so asks Susan to summon the vehicle 10 mins before time. The Ford Infinity starts itself up at the central neighbourhood wireless charging park, which is situated 1 km down the road, and begins its trip to her house, which takes about 90 seconds. Jess kisses her kids, goes upstairs to grab her sunglasses, collects her stuff and then walks outside to the kerb. In the time it has taken her to get outside the car has arrived and is waiting for her. It automatically opens the door for her and she gets in and sits down in one of the rear seats. Jess gives a hand gesture and a work table extends from the side panel, where she puts her idevice and other stuff. When she is comfortable she gives Susan a voice command for the car to take her to work. The car verbally confirms the destination, closes the doors, gives a warning alert, initiates the biometrics, sets the climate control to Jess’s preferences, starts itself up and then slowly moves away from the kerb. It drives down the street at a safe speed and heads off to its destination being careful of pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles. The car is connected to the cloud and other connected vehicles and devices and so knows the fastest and most direct route. It also has a full set of 3D sensors so it can detect objects that are not connected to the cloud nor that are in plain sight including older model human driven vehicles.
 
While the car drives Jess into town she finishes a presentation and dictates a few messages to clients and her team members. As the car arrives at her work, it notifies her digital work assistant, who orders her a flat white coffee at the office robot barrister on her floor. The car drops her off in the large drop-off zone under the port cochere right outside the front door of her building. The car automatically opens the door for her and waits for her to depart. As Jess goes to get out of the car Susan notifies her that she has left her idevice on the seat. Jess quickly grabs it and then walks towards the entrance. The car moves away from the kerb and heads for a nearby wireless charging park on the outskirts of the city. When it gets there it connects to the car sharing company hub and uploads data on its current health stats including battery life, tyre pressures, etc. 

The work day is a very full one and so Jess is a little later to leave work than normal. As she is packing up her things she commands Susan to summon her shared car, which it does. An algorithm calculates that it will take Jess approximately 5 mins to get downstairs and outside to the kerb pickup zone. The traffic signals are coordinated and linked to the cloud and the car sharing network and so the car AI accurately predicts that it is likely to be a 4 minute trip from the wireless charging park to her building. Hence, the car waits one minute before departing. Susan notifies the building central AI command and as Jess enters the lift lobby it recognises her biometrics and automatically keys an elevator to come for her to take her downstairs. As Jess exits the elevator and walks outside, the automated car arrives at the kerb in the extended pick-up zone. As Jess approaches the car it recognises her from her idevice and biometrics, and automatically opens the door for her. Jess gets in and commands Susan to get the car to take her home.  The car sets everything to Jess’s preferences, seamlessly connects her idevice to the car, starts playing her favourite song, then gives a warning alert, turns on the ignition and moves away from the kerb. 

Recognising that Jess is later to leave work than normal, and that in those situations she normally orders take-out food for the family, Susan presents a list of take-out options for her to order and pick-up en route. Jess makes a choice by voice command and a notification is given by her digital conversational home assistant at her house for her family to hear and see. After placing her order, a confirmation number and order total flashes on the heads up display on the windshield, in addition to an updated estimate of travel time to the restaurant and home factoring in the current traffic and weather conditions. The restaurant is located in a Shopping Customer Experience Centre, that features integrated automated valet parking and car sharing drop off-pick up zones for zero emission vehicles.  

​After responding to a few messages, Jess is a little tired and drops off to sleep. The car detects her sleeping state from its biometric sensors and adjusts the climate control, lighting and seat inclination to suit, and then continues on its journey. 

As the car approaches the restaurant it readjusts the seat, climate control and lighting and sends Jess audible alerts until the biometric sensors assess she has woken. Susan also sends a notification to the restaurant that they are only a few minutes away. Jess wakes up and gets ready to collect her food order. The car enters the Customer Experience Centre pick-up zone and the food is already waiting for her. Jess notices a product on one of the Customer Experience centre advertising screens and asks Susan to make a note for her to look at that again later on the large seat back display, on the way home once they are travelling again. 

Once Jess collects the food and gives a command to leave for the home, the car departs automatically once again. She also asks Susan to send a note to her digital conversational home assistant letting her family know that she has picked up dinner, that her kids should set the table, and that she is approximately 20 minutes away. A connected set of lights also turn on in the dining room ready for dinner. As Jess approaches her home in her shared car, the outside lights turn on and the car pulls in to the kerb directly outside her front gate. The door opens automatically and Jess exits with the food. Once she has entered the house the door automatically locks and the car pulls away and heads off back to the wireless charging park in the neighbourhood ready for its next rental later that night by another person in the local community. 

​There has a lot of talk and debate recently on what the impact of increasing automation will have on our workforce, national productivity and individual and collective economic prosperity. If you were to listen to and observe all of the commentary on the issue then you would quickly come to the conclusion that there is considerable disagreement among and between technology experts, social economists and policy makers about the impact that automation, and more specifically driverless vehicles, is likely to have on jobs, and on specific types of jobs.
 
Most acknowledge that automation will be disruptive in the short term and that at least some parts of the workforce will be negatively impacted. Some commentators note, however, that historically periods of rapid technological change have created more jobs than they have eliminated, and they have stimulated both wage growth and per capita incomes. A good example is the introduction of computerisation during the last century – we now have a whole IT industry where none existed before, and we have new and more skilled jobs in many areas.

A working paper released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the last few days discussing "Should we fear the robot revolution?" suggests that the current technological revolution, often referred to as the “AI revolution” or the “4th Industrial Revolution”  may be different than previous periods of rapid technological change. It finds that automation is good for growth but bad for equality and that there are “good reasons to believe that a resilient, adaptable economy will again vanquish the specter of technological unemployment”.

As reported by Cowan from the Centre for Independent Studies, optimists argue that advances in robotics and artificial intelligence will make how we work safer and/or better while creating new hitherto unimagined jobs and/or unparalleled opportunities for leisure. Pessimists on the other hand worry that technological innovation will lead to machines making much human labour redundant and creating mass unemployment. Driverless vehicles, and in particular driverless trucks, have often been cited as the first places where this will happen. Cowan goes on to say that “for as long as innovation has been finding ways to make labour better or easier there have been concerns about technology displacing labour”.

There is a lot of conjecture on when we will see highly and fully automated vehicles on our roads, and following that, when they will form a sizable portion of the fleet. There is certainly a lot of hype out there and many false predictions. Research by Grace et al (2017) , found that AI researchers on average expect to see AI outperforming humans at driving a truck by 2027 and having a 50% chance of outperforming humans in all tasks within 45 years. I have been advocating for some time for us to accelerate our activity in the automated vehicle space to take advantage of the benefits earlier. And from what I can ascertain right now, it would seem likely that we will see fully automated vehicles commercially available in an array of on-road applications within the next decade. And we will most likely have conditionally automated vehicles on our roads by 2020. That is certainly the intent of the Australian governments Transport and Infrastructure Council. In November 2016, the Australian transport ministers agreed to a phased reform program so that conditionally automated vehicles can operate safely and legally on our roads before 2020, and highly and fully automated vehicles from 2020. The current consensus seems to be that about 20% of new car sales in 2030 may be fully automated rising to much higher proportions by 2040. Much of this will be fueled by fleet sales and the growth in activity generated by Asia. But predictions in relation to driverless trucks are much less reliable and despite the obvious productivity benefits, seemingly slower to be embraced right now. Certainly, a significant part of the reason for this outcome is the concerns re jobs and employee reskilling and the highly regulated nature of the trucking industry.

Some like the World Economic Forum say we are on the cusp of a 4th industrial revolution based on advances in artificial intelligence and robotics. In one of his recent reports Cowan makes some excellent comparisons between the AI revolution and the 1st industrial revolution of the 18th century. He quotes economic historian Deirdre McCloskey, who identified that following the Industrial Revolution national income increased in Britain over the following eight decades by a factor of nearly seven. Furthermore, in his writings on the future relationship between technology and inequality Davis notes that “a number of emerging technologies are by their very nature likely to spur entirely new professions or industries as strong complements to human ingenuity".

As mentioned, the IMF working paper concludes that automation is good for growth and bad for equality. They predict that real wages will fall in the short term but eventually rise, albeit over several generations. And they acknowledge that this outcome appears somewhat consistent with what happened in the 1st Industrial Revolution. Davis states that levels and distribution of wealth and income inequality are dynamic, and that there is rising evidence that the majority of the impact of new technologies on workers will not be from entire job categories disappearing, but rather shifts within professions in terms of demand for skills. And work by the World Economic Forum indicates that the vast majority of the workers currently holding jobs experiencing technological disruption will be able to transition to other jobs with some reskilling.

The Australian Government reports there were 184,200 truck drivers in Australia in 2017, 96.1% were male, and their average age was 47 years, with 1 in 5 being at retirement age. The average age of truck drivers was much higher than the average working age for the entire population. There is an 8.7% growth in jobs predicted in this sector over the next 5 years despite the age profile of drivers and the challenge in front of us with satisfying growing employment demand. Introducing greater levels of automation has the potential to help solve some of these challenges and make the current jobs in the industry potentially more enriching if the mix of tasks evolves and adapts.

A thought leadership paper by the Australia and New Zealand Driverless Vehicle Initiative on the "Economic Impact of Automated Vehicles on Jobs and Investment" states that based on achieving 1% of the global intelligent mobility market, Australia would generate approximately 7,500 direct jobs and 16,000 direct and indirect jobs based on traditional car manufacturing parameters. The opportunities are also documented in a report published by the International Transport Forum (ITF) regarding "Managing the Transition of Driverless Road Freight Transport" which states that automated trucks would enable cost savings, lower emissions and safer roads, and that they could also address the shortage of drivers being faced by the industry.

Some commentators have questioned the approach the Australian government took with government assistance to the automotive sector over the past decade. For instance, of the approximately $1 billion in funding announced in 2013 to be provided to the industry over the following five years to support vehicle manufacturers and supply chain companies, only $15 million was committed to assist automotive workers made redundant to reskill and find new employment. The suggestion here is that if more government assistance was directed to worker reskilling as greater automation comes into effect then we could benefit more substantially through more jobs and new market opportunities being created. CEDA recognises the importance of worker support programs in the statement by Davis that perhaps "we should view transitioning and supporting Australian workers as an opportunity, not a threat".  

While the ITF note that the adoption of driverless trucks is likely to reduce demand for drivers at a faster rate than a supply shortage would emerge, this needs to be offset against many of the other societal benefits that are likely to accrue, such as improving road safety and saving lives. How do we value lives against jobs and do we even have to do that if we get the transitional phase right and invest early and properly in reskilling and upskilling programs? As highlighted by the ITF, preparing now for potential negative social impacts of job losses will mitigate the risks in the event a rapid transition occurs.

What all of this comes down to is that there is merit in exploring further innovation and automation in the trucking sector, in combination with programs to upskill and reskill workers within that sector over time. There will be those that resist, but I am of the view that it is much better to be prepared, and in a position to benefit from the insight we can gain, and to be technology leaders rather than followers. We clearly need to become better informed and to do that we need to be more active in conducting further field trials, pilot programs and real world deployments. And we need to do it armed with the evidence and thinking of what it might mean for jobs, workers and end to end productivity. If we do that then there is a good chance that we can become both the architects of a newly reinvigorated and globally competitive industry and the creators of a greater number of more highly skilled jobs, that might otherwise not exist.

I would be interested to hear the thoughts of innovators and other industry leaders on the findings of these recent reports and how we might work together to achieve better outcomes from automation in the transport industry sooner.