On today’s show, we have Tim Bigwood, who is the acting CEO of Noregon Systems. Noregon is a company that are the experts at acquiring, analyzing, and interpreting vehicle data. Their products include in-shop diagnostic and repair tools and real-time fleet asset-management solutions that give assistance in capturing and transforming your own vehicle data into actionable information.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How does this data affect the transportation supply chain?
- How is vehicle data going to be used as autonomous cars become common in the market?
- What is the role of cybersecurity in the communication among vehicles?
- What is the possible future for the trucking industry?
We would like to give a special thanks to James Cape, who is a Managing Partner at Matrix Solutions. James made the introduction to Tim. Without James, we would not have been able to conduct this amazing interview.
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Guest:
- Tim Bigwood’s LinkedIn
- Noregon Systems Official Website
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Disclaimer to the Transcripts:
The transcript was generated using an Artificial Intelligence program and then scanned over; we would like to thank you in advance for understanding that there might be some inaccuracies. While reading, one might also notice that there are times were the sentences are not grammatically correct and due to changes in advertisements, the time stamps do not always align with the show. We are keeping the text as true to the interview as possible and hope that the transcript can be used for a reference in conjunction with the Podcast audio. Thank you and enjoy.
Intro 00:00
You’re listening to The Silicon Valley Podcast.
Shawn Flynn 00:02
On today’s show we have Tim Bigwood, who is the acting CEO of Noregon, a company that are the experts at acquiring, analyzing, and interpreting vehicle data. Their products include in shop, diagnostic and repair tools, real-time fleet asset management solutions that give assistance in capturing and transforming your own vehicle data into actionable information. We talk about how this data affects the transportation supply chain, how his vehicle data is going to be used as autonomous cars become common in the market. All this and more on today’s episode.
Intro 00:35
Welcome to the Silicon Valley Podcast with your host Shawn Flynn who interviews famous Entrepreneurs, Venture Capitalists and Leaders in Tech. Learn their secrets and see tomorrow’s world today.
Shawn Flynn 01:02
Tim, welcome to Silicon Valley. Thank you for being a guest on today’s show.
Tim Bigwood 01:06
Shawn, thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Shawn Flynn 01:09
Now Tim, what does Noregon do? And what was your path that led you to be the current CEO?
Tim Bigwood 01:16
So, our mission is to go ahead and keep trucks and truckers safe. We knew that we’re an IOT company that specializes in connected vehicle solutions. We have various in-shop solutions, JPRO, our over the air solution which true-vision-up-time. We have hardware adapters, customized hardware development, and software development that we do for various customers as well. And I’ve been very fortunate, I ultimately was tasked to go ahead and take over this role on one January of this past year. I started out my career as a signal officer. When I graduated school, I went from that into doing DOD communications consulting and then went over to do some counter bioterrorism and supported the CDC for several years. Then my last opportunity, I was responsible for delivery and operations for a computer-aided dispatch company that ultimately provided asset management for law fires and EMS, 911 systems. I started with Noregon about four and a half years ago, came in initially as the VP of Operations, really kind of helped work to support with some of our key customer relationships, our call center, as well as our order fulfillment side of the house. I moved up to the CEO and took over the marketing function, and then ultimately when January came around, and I was very fortunate to be put in this role.
Shawn Flynn 02:33
So Noregon collects a ton of data. What’s the benefit of having access to all this data for the drivers and the fleet operators?
Tim Bigwood 02:42
So, our applications when you go ahead and connect to a vehicle or in shop solution, JPRO, ultimately it goes ahead and diagnosis repair that entire vehicle. So, we understand what faults are going on, what the problems are within that vehicle, what needs to be going down and getting resolved. So, we can then take that data and provide it back to the fleets so they can really understand what is the health of their overall fleet of vehicles, how well are they being maintained.
Are those vehicles coming back for repeat systems? Are those vehicles going ahead and have the right…? They can really work on supply chain management, where they’re going ahead and putting their tools or are their texts connecting the vehicles and really going ahead and diagnosing and repairing the entire vehicle. One of the things we found is that oftentimes, initially, technicians we’re just going ahead and really listening to what the driver said, as opposed to really analyzing the entire vehicle to see what may or may not be going on with that. So, when you have that data, you can really go ahead and make better business decisions. Carriers as well as some of the larger fleets, have service level agreements with various customers out there. And it’s paramount that they make that and if we’re not providing that or they’re not giving their vehicles, our time is uptime, and those vehicles aren’t having that uptime, and they’re not able to go ahead and deliver. And so that data really provides them key insight into how their operations are maintaining and want nothing for us drivers. There’s your tremendous driver shortage, you go ahead and hear that across the board, drivers only get paid if they’re driving. So, if a fleet of vehicles are not running well, then they’re not going to be able to go and maintain their drivers. There’s estimates and turnover of upwards of 80% fleets that are offering free college tuition to try and be able to keep drivers. And so, if they’re not having a fleet of vehicles that is optimally working, then that’ll directly correlate with faulty vehicles, you’re going to see a high turnover for drivers. So again, that really gives them insight into their entire operation and how to be able to go ahead and fix that.
Shawn Flynn 04:29
So, can you talk about the implementation in the transportation space and how efficiency is affected with data?
Tim Bigwood 04:36
The big thing with that is vehicle health is the uptime, it’s being able to go in and take that data and basically ensuring that your vehicle gets from A to B, and you want to make sure that one, you’ve got the vehicles operational, you want to make sure that those technicians are being able to go out and maintain those vehicles and then be able to make sure that there are parts along the way. One of the big problems they have is you don’t want to have a vehicle sidelined for the fact that they don’t have the parts that are in the right place. And so when you’re able to go ahead and track the data where you see common occurrences, where your common issues with different components within the truck, they need to have those parts on hand, rather than go ahead and wait on those parts to get to the location, to have the right driver, to have the right technician to be able to modify that. So it really helps to go ahead and improve the efficiency and again, helps maintain those service level agreements that those customers have because the freight right now is there’s a lot of freight that’s out there, it needs to go ahead and get moved and so that the companies are paying a premium to get that.
Shawn Flynn 05:38
So then can data also benefit the transportation supply chain?
Tim Bigwood 05:43
Very much so. So, when you look at from the overall supply chain, from a parts perspective, so you have these large part distributors, they want to know what parts they need to have. They have their own anecdotal… they understand some seasonal information, but when they see what’s happening within those vehicles, they can also know whether or not they didn’t necessarily tweak the right setting on the vehicle. So, they’re able to go out and help fine tuning the settings to make sure that they’re going ahead and getting optimal performance. But we’ve had a great year in 2018, from class eight orders. A lot of the larger ones are always… they’re fighting for business; they’re fighting for space. So as they’re able to go ahead and show that their vehicles are up longer, that they’re the ones that are less, less likely to go ahead and break down, they’re more reliable, so that they’re really the ones that can push their brand.
Shawn Flynn 06:30
So, then this technology that Noregon has developed… are companies adopting it pretty quickly then or is there kind of some pushback?
Tim Bigwood 06:38
We’ve definitely gone ahead and seen a very rapid adoption. One of the great things about us is that we’re all-makes, all-models. We are agnostic within that. A lot of the solutions that are out there are really key to the individual components and we all know that the body, it’s a holistic system and so that if you got one problem, or one of your unit seems to go ahead and be showing a little bit of a problem, it may be a symptom of a larger issue that’s out there. So, when you use a tool like ours, you’re able to go ahead and look at the system holistically. And it really goes ahead and again increases the drivers’ ability to go ahead and drive. It allows that vehicle to be up, it’ll go ahead and get repairs that may or may not be letting up on the dashboard that are about ready to go. But they’re able to proactively address those issues when they come in for routine maintenance, as opposed to waiting until the vehicles on the side of the road. It’s really, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of savings and money because with the vehicles on the side of the road, you have to go out and pay for a tow, you have to figure out where to be able to tow that vehicle, figure out if you have the right parts whereas if it’s addressed before anything moves out of the shop bay, then ultimately you’re able to keep that truck up longer, which is paramount.
Shawn Flynn 07:45
So, the new technologies are really for these companies to prevent problems in the future, to address things before they happen, is that right?
Tim Bigwood 07:53
So, we do both, so I mean obviously when the vehicles in the shop and your check engine light comes on, you can use one of our technologies to be able to look at and see, diagnose repair that vehicle. So, you can see, “Hey, this is what you know, you got a red light on the dash, this is what that fault is, this is what the problem is. And oh, by the way, there’s another tool we hear that we call inactive faults, that’s not showing up all the time.” You’re able to identify that it’s going to be a potential concern. And you can go and address that issue. Another solution we have is really where you are kind of pushing where the technology is going, you know, when you’re in the shop, that is something that is you’re there, you’re off road, you’re not moving, and obviously that you don’t have… you’re not making money at that point in time.
Are there are solutions, more of an over the air solution so we’re in real time, we can monitor that health and safety those vehicles and you look at the solutions you want to go ahead and be able to address that truck while it is sick, you know before it’s dead so to speak, you know, one on the side of the road. You want to be able to address it in real time, so you want to proactively and preventatively be able to schedule that maybe somewhere along that route. If it’s going north, the south and you want to be able to go as it starts to continue to further south. You want to be able to say, “Hey, pull off on XYZ location, here’s the truck stop.” They’ve got the part, they’re ready to go and be able to address your issue. So, trending in general with moving that direction, we’re falling a lot with what the commercial spaces do, or the kind of the more personally owned vehicles is going. And we’re doing that more on the commercial space as well. Really trying to prevent or get to that, purely prognostic and preventive area.
Shawn Flynn 09:21
Do you think in the future that a situation might arise where say you get in a minor car accident, but then the sensors will tell you where you can get that part repaired within your daily calendar, when the most optimal time would be? How do you see all these pieces playing together?
Tim Bigwood 09:42
Technology will go and evolve whether it be within 5g, whether it be other aspects of it, you’re trying to go ahead and push diagnostics to the edge. So, you want to understand what’s going on within that vehicle. So, in real time, you can figure out, “Hey, I’m driving down the road. I know I had this issue.” And then automatically as you continue to see more machine learning and more algorithms get involved, they’ll be able to go ahead and ultimately do some routine scheduling within some of those larger fleets because obviously, or within a one year contract maintainer, they’ll make sure that they have a bay available and make sure they have the right certified technician available.
They’ll have the right parts available or get everything in route. So, it’s really more of adjusting time system as opposed to having large warehouses of stocks and huge bays. It’ll be much smaller setups along the road. No one wants to go ahead and maintain long terms of inventory. You want to be able to try and turn it as fast as possible and where that’s going to go in this scenario you put… Okay, great. I had a car accident, then, you know, you’re going to know as they’re doing self-diagnosing or what the problems were what needs to go and be fixed.
Shawn Flynn 10:46
Now, is this technology only for trucks, for mining equipment, public transportation, military, what are all the uses for it and does it have to be really altered?
Tim Bigwood 10:58
So, it does not have to be altered for multiple types of vehicle. Again, it’s an all makes all model solution. A lot of the vehicles in the military, all they are commercial vehicle parts that are put in there. And so, you got that solution. And then you get the mining trucks that are out there, work off roads and those larger ones. And again, we’re located in Greensboro, North Carolina, right next to a large OE that we work very tightly with mobile and Mac. And so, we do some software development for them. And so, a lot of the off-road equipment we work within those, again does not need to go and be customized.
Shawn Flynn 11:41
What about last mile transportation? What do you see with that technology?
Tim Bigwood 11:45
So, scooters, whether it be scooters autonomous, our limiting factor right now is what the protocol that you’re going to communicate on, within heavy duty vehicles at 1713. Or excuse me, 1639 or 17 away. That is our sweet spot. But as the last mile continues to change, as you mentioned, there are people on scooters. And we see a lot of autonomous space going that way. And we definitely see the requirement to have our technology on that. Because then you can be able to monitor these types of systems in real time, you’re going to want to know or the public’s going to want to know, hey, when that vehicle is going to go haywire, when that vehicle in front of you or to left to right of you, or the one that’s barreling down at your house is going to have some sort of fault on it. So being able to have some sense of comfort that it’s being monitored, that it’s going ahead and then say hey, they’re not going to put an autonomous vehicle on the road. That’s kind of the problem, you know, from our fleet standpoint, or from a larger delivery standpoint. So, having that capability, we see that definitely being more and more prevalent and more required, because as we continue moving to the autonomous space, the hours of restrictions or the hours of service, that current drivers have those go away. And so, then those trucks are going to be used a lot more and the more that you use that vehicle, the more opportunity is for it to break down. So, it’s more and more miles on it. So, you can do a better job of repairing it really going ahead and monitoring what the issues are.
Shawn Flynn 13:07
So, what type of technology still needs to be developed or improved in your mind for autonomous trucks?
Tim Bigwood 13:13
Obviously, the radar systems out there, they’re continuing to go ahead and work on Lane Departure systems. We work very tightly with some of the larger original equipment suppliers, as they’re continuing to develop some of their lane departure systems. You’ve got to look at the refueling options, how we’re going to be able to do that.
E-mobility seems to be a big play that’s out there as we continue to go and see batteries improve, that’s going to continue to help within the autonomous space, because then you don’t worry about, you know, fueling options or how you’re going to go and get that truck refueled. And it’s also going to be comfort, you know, how are you going to go ahead and worry from a regulation standpoint. We’ve seen a lot of states go ahead and really start to change the laws around that to allow for more testing. But it’s going to be a public awareness that’s out there and making people more comfortable with the fact that they’re driving next to a truck and it’s got no driver. And that is not necessarily technology identified, but it’s really going to go and be from a comfort level from the people that are out there.
Shawn Flynn 14:09
In your mind, how many years are we from having autonomous trucks?
Tim Bigwood 14:14
So that’s a difficult question. I’ll say from within our industry, we’ve got different levels of autonomy that we go ahead and say we are at level zero to four. And so, it really depends upon where it is, we’ve seen from a driver perspective, the drivers going to go ahead and be there in the seat. They have tremendous lane departure warning systems, they have cameras that are facing the driver to go ahead and say that, in the event that the driver is having problems, falling asleep or distracted, they can go ahead and be able to identify the problems within that driver. But you know, if we had to say you know, full autonomy, I’m saying probably 10 years at least. I recognize that there are a lot of great companies doing great things that are out there. A lot of the big players are snatching up some of the small players battery technology. It continues to go ahead and change, which is going to be the big one. So, I continue to see this as being, it’s an inevitability. But not only when technologically we are able to do that, and they’ve got the other scenarios where you’re going to have an accident guarantee, you know, which actually, you know, taking it right into the tree or into a car full of people. But it’s also going to be public, you know, the public has to understand that or really be comfortable. The fact that this is on the road and whether or not they’re allowing that just because we have the technology doesn’t mean that we’re going to be allowed to do it.
Shawn Flynn 15:29
On a social level, it was mentioned that it’s very difficult right now to find the number of drivers to fulfill all the need. With that, I would think there’d be a lot of push and encouragement for the autonomous trucks, but at the same time, there are strong truck unions that might be pushing against it. How is that balance right now affecting the adoption of technology in this space?
Tim Bigwood 15:54
Well, I think to your point about lots of problems within the short or if we address the shortage of drivers, you look at it mean, there’s a big initiative to be able to start pushing the driver age lower, moving from 21 to 18. They’re looking and trying to be able to there are several feeder programs for military vets. I don’t think that there are any sort of, you know, barriers at this point in time preventing technology, there are several states that have gone ahead and authorized, to be able to go ahead and ultimately allow them the opportunity to run with the autonomous trucks that are on their roads. They obviously, you know, the multiple private sectors that are out there that they’re doing it on their own test tracks. So, I don’t think it’s really started at all at this point. It’s just, we have a shortage of drivers, we know it’s coming. And it’s how we’re going to go ahead and be able to do that. And people are throwing, obviously lots of money in the Silicon Valley area. And then ultimately looking at other solutions from a legislative standpoint, you know, how do we go and look at it from rules and how are you going to change them?
Shawn Flynn 16:51
With all these tests, there must be a huge amount of data sets being collected, how valuable are those data sets right now?
Tim Bigwood 16:59
So, I think as you continue to go ahead and show more data and sensors in over the past 10 years, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in the amount of sensors that are on vehicles. And so again, to your point, we’re going to continue to see more and more data that’s out there. So, as we start to track that, you know, we get that data, we provide it back to the fleet so they can better understand their operations. And as these fleets, it’s a very cutthroat operation, as they continue to look to improve their own operation, it does nothing but go ahead and ultimately increase in value. Because when you start looking not only from their fleet side, but when you start looking into their overall distribution operations, when you look into their driver, scheduling, when it looks into routing standpoints… I mean that data then when you can start looking at it from almost a commercial standpoint, I know this driver has to rest, they’re going to have to be able to use that as data to go back from a renegotiating standpoint, whether it be from discounts on larger consumables, for their own products or to pursue services for their drivers. So that data again, it will also help them out from understanding how their trucks are operating. It’ll show them from almost an efficiency standpoint or a liability standpoint for them to go back to their larger providers or truck providers, to be able to use that as a differentiator negotiator. Talk about how they want to go ahead and purchases for future years. And you know, finally, and probably one of the biggest one, fuel. Fuel is a huge expensive, not the biggest expense for all these trucking companies. And so, they understand, you know, what’s their mileage per gallon? How do they be able to go and nuance that, how do they get better? How do they get rid of the parts that are impacting? And I think that again, it really is a tremendous amount from an efficiency standpoint and to help streamline their operations and ultimately save them money in the long run.
Shawn Flynn 18:44
I’ve just read an article about Amazon taking so much of the transportation away from UPS and the postal service with packages and their delivery system. If someone were to purchase a data set from an existing transportation company, could they create their own fleet easily from that, or what are the barriers of entry from creating a fleet right now?
Tim Bigwood 19:06
If you look at those data sets and stuff, they can understand vehicles, they can understand vehicle behavior, they can understand kind of fault and impact on driver behavior. So, I think they could really write a good playbook to how to work on efficiency. Maybe when they look at their routes, and how they’re going to go ahead and deliver where they need to go, and deliver what parts of the country, what vehicles work best within those. The trucking industry is very old, everything around you didn’t get there without a truck. And so that knowledge within that you can’t just add someone to the top of a company that’s not had that experience and just expect them to be able to pull data set to be able to be good at it. You can look at some best practices. You can look at that from the data. You can look at some different trends, but it really is going to come down to ultimately the leadership and the individuals that they go staff.
Shawn Flynn 19:54
And the trucks that are on the road, currently communication is I’m guessing mostly 3g, 4g. What can be done right now on that? And when 5g becomes available, how different will that be?
Tim Bigwood 20:07
3g is sun setting off right now there is an ELD mandate so that the drivers are required to have electronic logging devices on their vehicle so that companies in real time can understand how long those drivers have gone ahead and been driving. You need that from a law enforcement standpoint as well, they can pull over and ultimately check drivers’ logs to be able to do that. And predominantly, they’ve been used from the driver behavior standpoint, they want to understand and assist with routing, assist with hard breaking and assist with you know, how is the driver behaving? How is it going to impact miles per gallon? One of the things that we bring in a differentiator for our solution is we’re looking at the vehicle holistically. How’s it going and performing? We know if there is a potential CSA violation on that vehicle. We will also be able to go ahead and tell them about potential faults that are coming up so that it will impact the route. Again, really trying to diagnose that truck while it’s sick as opposed to when it’s dead on the side of the road. We’ll get that information to those fleet operators.
Tim Bigwood 21:03
Another thing in a differentiator that we’re just coming out with that we announced the last TMC is our products will allow them to be able to do force regions so that while they’re going down the side of the road, the DPF systems will go ahead and be able to burn off to someone who had these problems. You won’t have to have that again truck on the side of the road, not be inoperable, can go ahead and be able to monitor speed, you can go ahead and do parameter setting. So, cruise control, if you’ve got a fleet, you want to concern reference liability on that fleet, and you want to maintain that a certain miles per gallon. In the event that that goes out and gets changed without your knowledge, we look at that fleet holistically and we can give you visibility on what truck is outside of those parameters. We actually had a fleet that had a problem when the polar vortex hit the Midwest a couple months ago. There was a big concern about idle shut down. So idle shut down, is usually at five minutes to go out and prevent environmental concerns. But there was a big concern that we have a lot of these drivers freeze. And so, this fleet spent $10,000 to go out before the polar vortex go out, hit their truck. And then, you know, four or five days later went back out and re-enable the system after the polar vortex ended, they spent 10 grand and they only hit 40 trucks. And if you’re looking at a fleet over with thousands of trucks or hundreds of trucks, and you can do that remotely from a touch button over a 4g network or LTE network, that’s awesome. And then as you get into 5g, as we talked a little bit earlier, you’re going to see diagnostics on the edge. So how are you going to be able to kind of diagnose repair those vehicles? What sort of, you know, self-healing vehicles can we get to so that you don’t have to go ahead and dispatch someone while that truck is sidelined? How can you get that truck to kind of limp home, prevent that tow expense and really go ahead and do a band aid repair until it gets back to where it needs to be in really can see that full shop? To go ahead and make any sort of repairs that may be needed at that time?
Shawn Flynn 22:56
And how do you see the communication between cars on the road, and I’m guessing autonomous trucks will be more prevalent before autonomous cars? Do you see that interaction between the two?
Tim Bigwood 23:09
So, vehicle to vehicle interaction right now, the implications of that are vast and wide. And we don’t know how that’s going to go ahead and come out because of the fact that you’ve got multiple manufacturers is whether or not they’re going to go ahead and be able to communicate to each other. One of the things is going to be very important to be able to do is to create some sort of universal standard, and so that people will be able to talk to each other through universal protocols be able to have, so that they understand what’s going on. Longer term, you’re going to need that. So that one, if one truck knows that he’s going to go off the road or have a problem or he’s going to be moving, he needs to make a hard right turn as a result of the potential fault, then he’s got to be able to communicate to other autonomous trucks. But the only way that’s going to be able to happen is through some sort of universal communication. And that is really how the standards are going to have to be out there and we’re going to need some regulations to be able to go ahead and come in place.
Shawn Flynn 23:58
I’m not sure maybe it’s just movies and TV shows where there’s that guy sitting on the sidewalk or side of the road with his laptop. And next thing, you know, one car just crashes into another, the brakes stop working. Is that an actual reality? Or is that just more movies?
Tim Bigwood 24:14
So, from a cyber security standpoint, you know, anything’s possible, we don’t go ahead. And we were very preventative in our development of our software. I know that’s not something necessarily, it wouldn’t be something that would impact us as much as really the larger OE and the manufacturers have to go and focus on. And it’s definitely something in the security, we go and work with them. We have our conversation, cyber security is paramount to what they talked about, they’re always worried about those outside threats. And so they’re doing everything they can to go ahead and keep that locked down to prevent that and really make the customer or the consumer in the public, in general, just feel a lot safer because no one wants to go ahead and be concerned about who’s going to go out and be able to run into and again, that comes back to that larger part of autonomy and autonomous spaces. It’s really that comfort level for lack of a term, comfortable that that vehicle next to them, it does not have that potential. And so really cybersecurity, improving it is going to be paramount for the larger companies to go ahead and provide.
Shawn Flynn 25:08
What do you think’s going to hinder the progress more? Will it be people’s comfort level with the new technology, government regulations, or maybe the technology itself?
Tim Bigwood 25:18
I think the longer term, it’s going to be people really coming to the grips of, you know, not only when they’re looking next to them and seeing the vehicle and see no driver in it. But it’s also the standpoint of, are they ever going to be able to own a car that they can get into, it doesn’t have pedals and it doesn’t have a steering wheel. They’re losing all control, giving that up at that point in time. And that is going to be a huge cliff event for people to go out and get over. And you know whether or not it ultimately gets to that for the people to feel that they have some sense of control and get into something that’s just moving. That’s not on a fixed track. That’s on the open road. That’s going to be a huge personal comfort level. So again, I definitely think it’s the people.
Shawn Flynn 25:58
Is your product, is it more of a SaaS solution, monthly recurring revenue or fees to use the product, do you think it can actually get to the point where your car shuts off, if you don’t make your lease payment, or I’m just thinking about how much control an outside party can have?
Tim Bigwood 26:17
As you get to the hardware as a service, it’s really going to go ahead and get that a lot of the systems that they’re looking at, and where it’s probably going to go is you’re going to pay for all, you’re going to pay for your ability to go ahead and do that truck. So much like you’ve got other devices that are out there and all hardware as a service. That’s what these vehicles are coming. So those vehicles and service, they’re going to be providers for you and then ultimately when that vehicle, when your payment shuts off and your vehicle is done, you’re going to be on the side of the road and for lack of better terms, got a boot on it, and so you go ahead and pay your fine. And then you can see that for a lot of the ones that are out there and as you continue to go ahead and work within the data so that they understand it better. Then the larger always will start understanding the pricing models better and you look at it even from a commercial, as you mentioned, kind of the individual vehicles that are out there and personal vehicles, that’ll be something that they’ll go ahead and shut off with. And you see that now in different locations where several people don’t own a car, and they’re going ahead and just their app on the phone, they unlock it, they pay a certain amount within the city, if they go outside that city, they pick up more dollars, and there’s no doubt that they’ll go ahead and shut off and be on the side of the road. That’s probably not too far away to be on.
Shawn Flynn 27:24
So, what else do you see in the future for the trucking industry?
Tim Bigwood 27:29
So, we see mobility starting to play a larger role, and again, to go back to the autonomous space and then really trying to figure out how they’re doing vehicles because fuel again seems to be the largest expense of how they’re able to go ahead and cut that out. In the immediate future, we’ll go ahead and see differences within lane departure warning, to be more understanding around collision mitigation. So, they’ll continue to see a lot more sensors regarding those pieces. The other thing to think about is also the vehicles as they become more mechanical. It will be loading or unloading of their palletize, they’ll see how these vehicles come in and can do a lot more for themselves as opposed to rely on as many of the warehouse personnel that are out there. And we should continue to see automation move outside of the distribution channel onto those vehicles. And that’s…
Shawn Flynn 28:16
With that I’m just visualizing how much more efficient the future is going to be for the trucking industry. How much will this affect consumer prices?
Tim Bigwood 28:26
It depends, it really depends upon the consumables that are out there that continue to get more and more complex as well. So, whether or not they go up and you know, depending upon what happens geopolitically within other aspects, you don’t know what’s going to happen to the consumables that are out there. There are definitely opportunities for savings. But in order to be able to go ahead and make a lot of these changes within the transportation industry, there’s also going to be a huge upfront expense. And so as you’re going ahead and as those changes are made initially, there may not be immediate price relief, but as you start to realize a lot more of those efficiencies year two to year three, then there’s a great possibility that we’re going to be passed on the consumer. But that’ll definitely be a lot of technology expense in the front.
Shawn Flynn 29:09
And Tim, I’d asked about the future of the trucking industry. But what about the mobility industry in general?
Tim Bigwood 29:15
Again, the space continues to change, as we said earlier, that everything in the room got there from a truck. But you know, some of the smaller items is you’re going to start seeing drone deliveries received from a mobility standpoint, technology continues to go ahead and change for how they’re doing, I’d say last half mile deliveries is you’re getting into a lot more personal cars that are doing those deliveries, and e-commerce and technology in general continues to go ahead and push that down to this lowest level so to speak, so people moving from distribution points, and then they’ll start, go ahead and continue to push that down. So, we’ll definitely go ahead and be modified and you don’t have that truck going and delivering it to your front door. But it’s definitely going to get it to the distribution chain.
Shawn Flynn 30:00
What will have to be changed for all these cars in the future? Or with all this technology? Are there going to have to be sensors on the road? Or just better roads? Or what do you see helping the situation?
Tim Bigwood 30:13
Well, paramount, I think is definitely infrastructure improvement. We’ve seen it across the US, it’s one of the big things that we’re for lobbying for as an industry is transportation improvement. We’ve got difficult conditions within our roads, within our bridges, there’s definitely congestion areas to being able to go in and change that initiative is really going to be the first and foremost start that are out there. Sensors in the road will definitely go and happen because you look at some of the larger lanes and if you want to start having pure autonomy, as your vehicle to vehicle communication, you’re going to need that type of sensor. But you know, first and foremost is going to be the infrastructure. And we’ve seen time and again, the ability to or the request for legislation out there to try and improve it and we just we haven’t had it today. So hopefully, we’ll see that and then that’ll really help speed up the technology.
Shawn Flynn 30:58
And then Tim is there any information out there that you want to give to our viewers, any way for them to contact you, or website or anything like that?
Tim Bigwood 31:08
Shawn, thank you to you. It’s been great. It’s been a lot of fun. Please check us out at Noregon.com.
Shawn Flynn 31:13
And then I also want to thank James Cape who’s the gentleman that actually introduced him to us here at Silicon Valley. He’s the one that allowed this whole thing to happen. So, James, thank you and his information will be in our show notes. All right, Tim, thank you for being a guest this week on Silicon Valley. And we look forward to having you on the show in the future.
Tim Bigwood 31:33
Thank you.
Outro 31:34
Thank you for listening to The Silicon Valley Podcast. To access our resources, visit us at TheSiliconValleyPodcast.com and follow our host on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn @ShawnFlynnSV. This show is for entertainment purposes only and is licensed by The Investors Podcast Network. Before making any decisions, consult a professional.
