Yoshishide Horiuchi - Idea of virtual transportation

ISSS Meeting at Asilomar, June 28-July 2, 1999
  • Special Integration Group on Business and Industry, July 1, 1999, 1:30 p.m. 
These participant's notes were created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker's presentation(s) and comments from the audience. These should not be viewed as official transcripts of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. These notes have been contributed by Ian Simmonds at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center ( http://www.research.ibm.com ).

The idea of idealizing our future as an alternative to incremental progress.

Focus on transportation: 

  • movement of people, objects and/or information 
    • 15% of CO2 emissions comes from automobiles 
Japanese approach is about lowering the rate of increase.

Why are we traveling by automobile? 

  • increase in the driving age population in the western world 
  • required distance to travel increases more rapidly 
The ideal form of transportation is walking: 
  • inexpensive 
  • easy to park 
  • no fear of speeding tickets 
There have always been traffic jams!

As income gets higher, we tend to live longer.

As income gets higher, we tend to travel about the same amount (1.5 hours).

What changes is the distance travelled, not the time spent traveling!

People are creating traveling needs as the transportation capabilities improve.
Demand Supply
Short term TDM (?) Traffic Management
Long Term Urban-regional planning Construction and new technologies

Three reasons for traveling: 

  • A Type Tourist -- traveling for a purpose 
  • B Type Tourist -- traveling is the purpose 
  • automobile enthusiast 
Fourth case in Japan: 
  • automobile ownership enthusiast 
Based upon Ackoff's Idealized Design: 
  • the idea of virtual transportation is cycling machine with virtual reality goggles 
  • get experience of it, without the stuff. 
Conclusion: The issue that needs addressing is the hedonistic use of transportation.

Enrique: If ever there was an egocentric manager, it was Henry Ford. Would Ford or GM today be enthusiastic about this? 

  • A. (David Ing): GM does not make money on the car. 
??? Also, the car industry is connected to other industries -- oil industry, plastic industry, ...

??? In many parts of Africa, people walk everywhere, and are much healthier. As the economies improve, there are cartels pushing consumerism, including the use of cars. 
 
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This page was last modified by David Ing on October 11, 1999.