During the last year alone, a self-driving truck has completed a commercial beer run, two automotive giants have spun out new divisions focused on “smart mobility,” and one of the world’s biggest car companies unveiled a new electric vehicle amid Tesla-level intrigue.
Not since the days of Henry Ford’s first mass market family cars has the transportation industry seen the kind of upheaval happening today. Tech publications are running non-April Fool’s Day articles hypothesizing about “Our self-flying car future.”
Along the way, environmentalists have both cheered the potential for technology to aid in major cuts to transportation emissions and kept a careful eye on concerns such as undercutting public transit or increasing congestion in the process.
Get ready for all the techno-hype to get a lot more real in 2017 — especially when it comes to big questions poised to bubble to the surface around regulation, electrification and data security.
This is an excerpt from an article originally published on GreenBiz.
