Daily Inspiration: “Intelligent, hyperconnected infrastructure is the Rodney Dangerfield of the era of autonomy!”

“Intelligent, hyperconnected infrastructure is the Rodney Dangerfield of the era of autonomy!” – Futurist  Jim Carroll

It gets no respect. Everyone’s talking about self-driving cars, and no one is talking about smart streetlights.

I am – I stare at them every single day and imagine limitless opportunity. Why can’t they be a Fitbit for a city, be used to charge your electric vehicle, and provide a better route to your office?

The road you drive on and the bridge that you cross are also becoming intelligent, connected, aware and data-gathering. The impact everywhere is significant: everyone from construction companies to architectural design firms will be impacted.

There’s more to this trend thought than you might think – what big trends are you watching that are causing you to lose site of an even bigger trend? Did you know that Amazon owns a patent that would provide access to highway lanes that are the best for travel – in real time? It’s based on the concept of embedded, connected road sensors and big data analysis.

Amazon is disrupting the food and retail industry, but hey, why not challenge and change the automotive, highway, transportation and mobility industries as well?

I bet you didn’t see that when everyone is talking about self-driving cars as a huge trend. It’s just a small part of an overall more significant, disruptive trend.