The level of infotainment on airplanes today amazes me everytime. Movies, pod casts, customs and cultural information along with in flight texting to the ground as a complimentary service, at least for some flights. When I arrived in Singapore, I was through customes in minutes where they digitally scanned both my thumbs while obtaining multiple pieces of information from my passport alongside the declaration paperwork prior to entry. I was happy to provide it all, anxiously waiting to pull up my UBER app to check the pricing. After a 5min wait for my bags I was on my way. At the Singapore International Airport TNCs appear to be on separate levels from Taxis. The downside, I was on the Taxis floor so I quickly decided to switch from trying to get my UBER app to load through all my cell phone updates anddopted to just walk out and jump in a taxi. I was five minutes into my taxi ride before I figured out what hotel I was going to, but no worries a simple “let’s go downtown” kicked off the trip.

I sure do love this Cooperative Automated Transportation world, but I’m not sure I would take a taxi without a driver, not for fear of the techoncology… I would miss the best part of the trip… that great Intel and conversation with the driver. For after all, having meaningful relationships with people is what makes life so wonderful!

Growing up I lived two blocks from the K-12 school in a rural farming town, so I only rode the traditional school bus for school sports and feild trips. Even though it has been many years, everytime I see a school bus that isn’t identical to the one I road as a child somthing just doesn’t feel right. The little voice inside my head says “that’s not a school bus”.Perhaps looking forward there are other ways to get our children safely to school and other activities than the big yellow bus? What the picture dosen’t show you is the light rail line that parallels the road for the 10km I followed this bus. Even in a city like Dubai, where most people appear to live in high rises closely connected to the rail line change takes time even when multimodal options are there. The RTA metro was completed in 2009.

As I look toward the future and think about what is needed to be successful in transitioning toward a new mobility future perhaps we can draw from some of the lessons learned from a 2007 startup that has spent the last 12 years creating trust in an online world.This particular startup worked to develop a “Yelp” type product for crowdsourcing consumer reviews for experiences and purchases online with the vision of developing a more trust filled confident online market place. Succes needed to be more than making an online purchase and then hoping the product would show up with your credit card information intact.Perhaps some of the lessons learned along their journey ring true for the new mobility future for transportation as well…

1. Build a team with people you trust
2. Bring in older more experienced people to mentor your team
3. Don’t outsource skills you have or could reasonably develop
4. Most people play by the rules
5. Trust is hard to obtain and easily lost
6. Surround yourself with people that known more than you, but know when to trust yourself
7. Good is no longer good enough, to compete to need to be great
8. Invitie your customer into the process and make sure you educate them along the way
9. Communicate the “Why you are going to do something” and convert that into action
10. Don’t just hire anyone. Identify people who have bought into your vision. Traditional hiring practices may not work. You need to take an intense networking approach. Meet alot of people and identify people with passion and a working cultural fit.
11. Establish a personal brand demonstrating your competence in the space, not just the vision you have but how you are putting it into practice.
12. What advice should you give your younger self? Don’t over think it, everything will be OK. Get one great laugh everyday with people you love being with.

(Name of startup: Trust Pilot, Founder Peter M.)

Duplicating what a human driver can see for use by an advanced driver-assistive system (ADAS) requires High Definition maps which are created primarily through LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to build the Digital Infrastructure. If your fortunate enough to have a newer vehicle with adaptive cruise control, lane keeping or automated breaking technology here is a simple example of what your vehicle sees.