Once in a Generation Opportunity

A once in a generation opportunity is how Stefan Heck characterizes the changes to the built-environment, thanks to ACES. ACES – Autonomous, Connected, Electrified and Shared – is the acronym that Heck – CEO and Co-Founder, NAUTO, and Consulting Professor, Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University – invented to describe the convergence of different technologies that will transform not only mobility, but the way we live. And this isn’t science fiction, as Heck suggests that different use-cases for ACES will be here in less than a decade, allowing us to begin reaping the benefits even before today’s cars go the way of yesterday’s horses.

He points out in the above interview, filmed at the Joint Venture Silicon Valley 2016 State of the Valley Conference, that the potential benefits from ACES include

• less traffic congestion,
• drastic reduction in pollutants,
• more affordable mobility (8 cents/mile compared to at least $0.54/mile (IRS) to as much as $2/mile (Heck)),
• and communities built for people, instead of cars.

Autonomy will allow the creation of shared vehicles, like e-taxis, that effectively increase utilization rates by as much as fifteen times compared to today’s single occupancy vehicle. The e-Taxi will also reduce the need for parking, as well as the congestion associated with looking for parking. The mobility future he paints is one that includes multi-modes of transport beyond traditional vehicles and includes pedestrian, bikes, e-bikes, buses and trains and planes with a key improvement being improved frequency of the mobility options. The shifting of just some of the traffic to other modes, such as e-bikes, will have a positive impact as they will allow more throughput on a given street.

These multiple modes of transport, combined with autonomy, will allow the decoupling of parking from living and working spaces. As he suggests, this decoupling will allow us to use land for people, instead of for automobiles.

In his presentation, he pointed out that urban form and transport infrastructure has a huge impact on pollution. For instance, Atlanta spews out more than 10x the CO2 annually compared to Barcelona, both cities that anchor populations of a little more than 5 million people. The difference is the density, as Barcelona occupies 162 square kilometers compared to Atlanta’s 4,290 square kilometers.

Beyond his role of research as a consulting professor, Heck is helping to make ACES happen with the company he founded, Nauto. Stay tuned for a future interview with Heck about Nauto’s contribution to this autonomous, connected, shared and electrified future.