Building the Model T for Gen Z

• Published in: Industry Week
• Main Author: Kilgore, Richard
• Format: Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nashville Endeavor Business Media 19.09.2019
• Subjects: Assembly; Automation; Automobile industry; Automobiles; Design specifications; Disruption; Electric vehicles; Manufacturers; Manufacturing; Musk, Elon; Pedestrians; Ride sharing services; Rubber; Standardization; Transportation industry; Work stations; Workstations; San Francisco California; United States > US
• ISSN: 0039-0895

For autonomous rubber to hit the road—and not pedestrians, bikers and scooters--it may be time to agree to some new Transformational Transportation Thinking (needs a cooler name, how about T3?) to help us more quickly achieve the same disruption to the car industry that cars managed when competing with the horse-and-buggy industry just a little over a hundred years ago. Most importantly, a universal T design specification would enable T manufacturers and component vendors to employ the most state-of-the art, high-volume, fixed-automation manufacturing processes possible. Imagine a T design that could reduce that process to 10 standardized components and 10 work stations assembled in a lights-out robotic assembly sphere. Because components and manufacturing processes would be standardized, the list of possible manufacturers could include not only those from the traditional auto industry, but also others from the micromobility world (like the makers of scooters) and possibly the electronics assembly industries.