Hydrogen Could Play a Vital Role in Future Mobility
Hydrogen and batteries are often characterized as competing technologies, however the strengths and weaknesses of these technologies suggest that they should play complementary roles.
The members of the Hydrogen Council believe that by 2050 hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles could constitute up to 20 percent of the total vehicle fleet, some 400 million cars, 15 million to 20 million trucks, and around 5 million buses.
Read more of the original article at McKinsey & Company.
Tesla’s Semi-Truck and Roadster Charge Ahead
Elon Musk introduced two new Tesla vehicles—the heavy-duty Semi Truck and the speedy Roadster— claiming incredible range and charging numbers that would require either advances in battery technology, or a new understanding of how batteries are put to use.
Musk vowed the Tesla Semi would haul an unprecedented 80,000 pounds for 500 miles on a single charge, then recharge 400 miles of range in 30 minutes, requiring a charging system that's 10 times more powerful than one of the fastest battery-charging networks on the road today—Tesla’s own Superchargers.
“I don't think they're lying,” said Sam Jaffe, battery analyst for Cairn Energy Research in Boulder, Colorado. “I just think they left something out of the public reveal that would have explained how these numbers work.”
Read more of the original article at Bloomberg.
Disrupt a Bad CX to Grow Your Business
By Wendy Eichenbaum
The tech world is famous for touting disruption to revolutionize the current paradigm. But disruption is change, which can be scary to consumers and companies.
Consumers are surrounded by horror stories. We face job loss due to automation and overseas manufacturing. Our privacy is eroded as companies track our movements online, and hackers exploit our data. And we wonder if artificial intelligence will create robots that we cannot control.
Companies fear the potential economic repercussions of change. They have sunk costs, contractual agreements, entrenched interests, and an existing corporate culture. So even if their current solution is problematic, they prefer what they know.
But not all change is scary to consumers. Consumers will embrace change when the change removes pain, when it enhances the experience. And if companies don’t keep pace with experience breakthroughs, they will fail.
Autonomous Trucking May Eliminate 300K Jobs
Logistics and trucking companies are looking down the road at cutting costs and speeding up delivery times when truck drivers no longer become necessary, and by extending the hours that commercial trucks can be kept in operation.
"Goldman Sachs economists predicted that trucking will shed about 300,000 jobs per year starting in about 25 years. That may begin sooner than anticipated if automated trucking clears government hurdles and technology innovations—and becomes widely adopted by trucking companies."
Read more of the original article at USA TODAY.
Will Uber Customers Choose to Look the Other Way?
While Uber’s problems such as workplace sexual harassment, drivers with criminal records and other past infractions are serious, the convenience factor may not make customers upset enough to delete the app.
In the recent data breach, hackers got only rider names, email addresses and telephone numbers. For about 600,000 drivers in the U.S., hackers got driver’s license numbers, and the company has offered them free credit monitoring services.
“We have a short memory as consumers,” Marlene Towns, a professor at Georgetown University’s business school said. “We tend to be if not forgiving, forgetful.”
Read more of the original article at The Detroit News.
