TPT September 2019

G LOBA L MARKE T P L AC E

from ownership to utility of motor vehicles. Electric cars, as indicated by the fourth letter, contribute not only to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and running costs of vehicles, but also to simplifying the self-driving system. But autonomous driving, the most crucial of the four elements in the revolution, has not, to date, been fully achieved. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an agency of the US Department of Transportation, has defined the levels of autonomous driving as follows: • Level 0: No automation. Driver performs all driving tasks. • Level 1: Driver assistance. Vehicle is controlled by the driver, with either acceleration, steering or braking assisted by the system. • Level 2: Partial automation. Driver remains engaged with the driving task and monitors the environment at all times. Sensors, radar and cameras observe the driving environment and the system simultaneously carries out more than one of the three functions. • Level 3: Conditional automation. In a specific environment or traffic condition the system performs all the three functions. But in other conditions the system requests the driver to take control of the vehicle. • Level 4: High automation. For example, the vehicle is capable of performing all the driving functions but only on an expressway or only when the weather is normal and the driver does not have to do anything. But when the vehicle enters an ordinary road, or when the weather changes, the system requests the driver to control the vehicle. • Level 5: Full automation. The vehicle is capable of performing all the driving functions under all conditions without requiring the presence of a driver. At present, car makers are marketing automobiles that have reached only Level 2. Since most of these cars require the driver to keep his or her hands on the steering wheel and to be always prepared to step on the accelerator or the brake pedal, they can hardly be called autonomous or self-driving vehicles. A more appropriate term should be a car with a driving assistance system. Under Japan’s Road Traffic Law, cars of up to Level 2 are regarded as roadworthy on a public road. But driving a car of Level 3 or of a higher level on a public road violates the law at present. It makes sense to permit driving a car of up to Level 2 under the existing law since the driver is in control of such a vehicle. When it comes to cars of Level 3 or of a higher level, however, the control will be shifted from the driver to the autonomous driving system. Therefore it becomes imperative to revise the Road Traffic Law, and to overhaul the automobile insurance system, in preparation for the actual use of such vehicles. Generally speaking, most technological innovations in the past were made in response to societal desires or to a demand that already existed. For instance, automobiles were to meet the universal human desire for travelling long distances quickly and comfortably. Hybrid cars responded to a social demand for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. As is obvious in the competitive free market system, businesses concentrate on developing new products and services that will sell. It is the marketers’ mission to get ahead of what people want and of political and social changes in the world. In the development of self-driving vehicles,

High-tech systems involving drones can help to enable future farming methods, but a drone’s primary function is to provide high-level aerial imagery, including strategic analysis of large areas of farmland. While this is useful, it is time-consuming and can lack granular information. “Ground-based sensor-based systems are more insightful and cost-effective for focusing solely on monitoring soil under crops and animal behaviour. This is exactly the information farmers need to map out their plan of action to secure the optimum yield,” said Harriet Sumnall, research analyst at ABI Research . The technologies that will power IoT in connected agriculture will rely heavily on gateways and low-power, wide area products. The cost of a connected agriculture system depends upon the number of sensors, with vendor pricing strategies ranging from a single upfront fee and an inclusive subscription to a data management platform (as with Sensoterra), to a zero upfront cost but a data subscription-only model (as with CropX). The former may be preferable for large farms, and the latter better for smaller ones. The reasons for adopting IoT in agriculture are universal – cost reduction, improved productivity and better profit margins – but the specific prompts in terms of readiness to adopt new applications can be more pragmatic and localised. In North America, for example, the political climate is proving challenging for the immigrant workforce required by the agricultural sector, and more automation could make up for this lack of manual labour. And in Europe, farmers are notably younger than elsewhere in the world and are more naturally receptive to adopting new technologies. “In general, however, there is a lack of education among farmers about the benefits of connected agriculture. This is a vital issue that IT vendors must continue to be active in remedying if agricultural IoT is to succeed,” Ms Sumnall concluded. Putting the CASE for autonomous cars In The Japan Times Takamitsu Sawa, vice director of the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Kizugawa, Kyoto, voiced an opinion on autonomous vehicles in real life: “ Demand in doubt for fully autonomous cars ”. At the June 2016 Paris Motor Show, Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG, revealed the German automaker’s new strategy expressed by the acronym CASE. C stands for “connected”, meaning that the driver of a future car will be able to receive services from information networks by being connected with cloud computing networks; A for “autonomous driving”; S for “sharing” and “services”; and E for “electric vehicles”. These four letters summarise a major revolution in the automobile industry from the viewpoint of carmakers. Connectivity is indispensable not only for improved safety, more comfortable driving, better drive management and more advanced car navigation, but also for autonomous driving and car sharing. The third letter, S, shows the industry’s readiness to adapt to a shift of preference on the part of consumers

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SEPTEMBER 2019