An extensive survey of 455 members of the U.S. transportation industry by ABI Research has revealed that nearly one third intend to introduce robotics into their business in the next year.
Coupled with the fact that an additional 22 percent were actively assessing the technology at the time of the report, it reveals an ongoing push toward autonomous vehicles and drone technology. This is in spite of the fact that 44 percent of respondents were not even familiar with autonomous vehicle technology for transport.
“Transportation providers may view intelligent transportation technologies as solutions to evolve their existing transportation operations versus opportunities for developing new revenue streams & business models,” Susan Beardslee, senior analyst at ABI Research, said. “These players also show concern for legacy systems integration and comprehension of the complexity/fragmentation of their supply chain.”
Specifically, respondents were energized by the belief that such intelligent technology has aided important areas of the industry: workforce collaboration, centralized IT and operations frameworks, as well as workforce mobility. Their concerns, however, focused on data security and privacy, the cost of adopting the technology and also robotics’ ability to be integrated into their existing legacy framework. Perhaps due to the latter concerns, while respondents did see robotics on the rise, many did not believe drones would have more than a limited impact in the next two years.
“The results deliver validation that notable challenges remain to digitize, automate, and transform the transportation industry, especially with the very long tail of owner-operators and small fleets,” Beardslee said. “Support of emerging technologies draws mixed reactions, with Over the Air building awareness. But respondents still see other compelling technologies, such as gateways, as nascent to the transportation industry. We expect to see this increase soon to effectively link vehicles and assets to operations.”
Among concerns for respondents, though, was the consolidation of data that would likely come with the advent of robotics initiatives. Only 2 percent ranked highly the sharing of operational data with others.