Are We There Yet?: Recent Episodes
MarketScale
Personal aircraft taxi service at a price comparable to the cost of a rideshare or car service in a fraction of the time? Are we there yet?
The forthcoming debut of the latest DeLorean iteration is discussed on the latest episode of “Are We There Yet?” Host Grant Harold talked with the automaker’s Chief Marketing Officer, Troy Beetz, about the Alpha5 — the company’s forthcoming luxury electric vehicle. The globally-recognized electric version of a car similar to what was seen in the classic film series “Back to the Future,” is set to make its debut at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday, August 21, 2022.
“It's one of many cars, which I think most people don’t understand, is that when we brought back the DeLorean brand it really was from the perspective of bringing back the DeLorean as an OEM — as a luxury car brand,” said Beetz. “Obviously it took a lot to get the Alpha5 done. It took a lot to generate a history … the Alpha5 really is a representation of where DeLorean was in 1981 and where it's been over the last 40 years.”
Beetz added that ensuring the Alpha5 was developed and met the qualifications of a legitimate automobile was not an easy road. But he said “Narrating that path to validate the Alpha5 as a genuine product of DeLorean obviously took a lot of time, a lot detail work, a lot of history — a lot of making sure that what we’re creating is foundationally correct,” said Beetz.
He even stated that the Alpha5’s development couldn’t be rushed because DeLorean wanted to avoid remaking the DMC-12 — the actual DeLorean seen in “Back to the Future.” At the Pebble Beach car show, the company hopes to explain why in a presentation timelining the company’s history.
Beetz said that as much as people and car lovers everywhere may want to see the actual version of the classic DMC-12, DeLorean was more focused on preserving that piece of history.
“Alpha5 was not created in a vacuum — we weren't trying to duplicate the DMC-12,” he said.
Instead, Beetz explained that if that was the case, the execution was not going to have the end result DeLorean would’ve wanted. He further stated that the automaker wanted to set its modern and classic cars apart, in honor of the following and separate fanbase it has, and of course, branding a new model.
“Had we tried, we would’ve gotten it wrong,” said Beetz. “The DMC-12 deserves to be in its own place and time. It’s an iconic vehicle. Reproducing that for today I think it would take away a lot of what the DMC was in its own place and time.”
International Representative for Teamster, Christopher Moore offers his insights on Aviation as an industry. As a leader of the Aviation Mechanics Coalition/Airline Division, Moore discusses the future and growth of unions within the industry with Are We There Yet? host Grant Harrell.
In Recent Studies from Boeing, the prediction for how much people is needed to fill vacancies within aviation mechanics suggests a demand for a hundred and thirty-two thousand new mechanics between now and 2041. Within the past 5 years, the numbers don’t necessarily align with that objective and this is because 30% of that workforce is near retirement. A need for a younger fleet arises, especially with COVID accelerating early-retirement within this sector.
Moore also hints at a the history of aviation drawing a stigma of instability with the 80s, 90s and 911 in what was “a lot of bankruptcies, a lot of people losing faith in it as a career,” said Moore, however we have come a long way since then in terms of “stabilizing the industry and making it a good place to work… wages are more stable, and we’re doing a lot of the right things as far as airlines and employee relations.”
Teamster’s initiatives align with outreach programs and events for students, sponsorships in Aerospace Maintenance Skills Competitions, FAA workforce grants to fully implement a soon-to-be educational program flexibly tailored to high school students and veterans in undeserved communities. In addition, apprenticeship programs for members within airlines, offering an accelerated program to earn their license quicker.
“We work with a lot of different folks… Group of Airlines and schools that teach aircraft maintenance, labor unions, and we all pool together to try and work on how we can help streamline the process for aviation maintenance schools to make it easier for the schools to change curriculum as it’s needed,” said Moore.
From benefits to contract negotiations, legal representation to training and development, Moore and Teamster is on the frontlines of Aviation to continue answering the big question, Are We There Yet? with plausible solutions in union work and talent acquisition.
One of the most well-known phrases in many industries is: If you’re not innovating, you’re dying. While the saying applies to a variety of industries, today, it is cozignant of the transportation industry. Speaking on the importance of technological innovation, Are We There Yet host Grant Harrell sits down with Kristi Montgomery the VP of Innovation, Research, and Development at Kenco, the largest woman-owned 3rd party logistics company in the United States.
As a 3rd party logisitics solutions provider, Kenco has a little over 100 facilities in North America, serving Fortune 500 companies across the continent. Montgomery, who has been with Kenco for over 30 years, said, “We have distribution services, transportation services, material handling, real-estate, and also supply chain solutions which encompasses my group, innovation, and also our consulting team and solutioning team for our customers.”
As a main part of Montgomery’s job, Kenco is leading in innovation in the industry. Montgomery noted, “Really, we wanted to move into more of a ‘How do we help our customers look at transformational change’ versus just making incremental improvements and keeping the lights on, so to speak.”
Kenco is recognized as one of the Top 10 of the leading 3PL’s in the world - in part because of their digital and technological innovation. The Kenco TMS LITE system, for example, brings customers improved supply chain performance via a single point of contact. Montgomery said, “Really, what TMS LITE does is bring a one stop shop to our customers.” The system helps businesses automate and digitize worflows while tapping into the carrier network.
Working with innovative partners in the transportation and logistics industry also lends to Kenco’s success. Kenco’s new partnership with Phantom Auto for remotely operated forklifts is set to increase workforce impact, improve safety, and save on costs.
Recognizing the importance of innovation has helped Kenco become a pioneer in emerging technologies. As labor becomes a premium and the industry faces a future labor shortage, staying steps ahead is possible because of innovation.
“We have to start thinking differently. We have to start moving ourselves to a different level of transformation to get us above and beyond the labor shortage,” explained Montgomery.
CEO of Detmar Logistics, Matthew Detmar, has the future on his mind. As a leader on the cutting edge of transportation technology, Detmar discusses the company’s growth and future outlook with Are We There Yet? host Grant Harrell.
In 2021, Detmar trucking was awarded the Top Green Fleet award, signalling a shift in the outlook for green trucking companies. Detmar Logistics, founded by Detmar himself, focuses on providing trucking utilities that are EV or hybrid technologies. While the trucking industry isn’t quite there yet on providing negative carbon emissions, Detmar noted that they are well on their way.
For instance, the Hypertruck ERX offers an extended range and onboard recharging, “It uses…onboard natural gas power points,” Detmar said, “Its a full electric compulsion technology.”
Trends in the oil and gas industry show efracks taking over, powered mainly by natural gas. To meet this changing damage, Detmar met with Hyliion, an electrical vehicle transition company, which helped them to adopt hybrid EX packages on the Diesels, “They’ve been a phenomenal partner…it’s all a win-win,” noted Detmar.
As one of the first adopters in the trucking industry, Detmar Logistics has pushed the boundaries of traditional logistics in order to provide a better outlook for future generations.
“The world is adapting to lowering green house gas emissions…it’s a better approach for the future of our planet,” said Detmar, while noting that transportation and trucking is a cyclical employment.
“We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs but we are solidifying our customer base to keep us around for long term so we can continue to provide our customers good alternative food and electrocation solutions on the class-age trucking side of things,” highlighted Detmar.
Small satellites are categorized by weight, under 500 kg or 1100lb, developed for navigation, communication, earth observation, and other activities. Fortune Business Insights projects the market to reach 10.75 B in 2028. Vaya Space is poised to take its fair share of the market in small satellite launches in the future. Vaya delivers safer launches at a greater than 25% lower cost, utilizing “2 million recycled plastic bottles per launch,” said Brent Willis, CEO of Vaya Space.
Sid Gutierrez, astronaut and Chairman of the Vaya Space Board of Directors, said that safety is at the core. “We value our people, so safety is our first value.” Without prioritizing safety, the company would be moot. “Safety is the cornerstone of any successful endeavor. Very few projects survive a major accident,” said Gutierrez.
Risk, cost, and reliability hinder space exploration and access. Guiterrez said, “amazingly, these things are all interconnected.” Fewer moving parts translates to fewer opportunities for things to go wrong. Willis said, “the elegant simplicity of Vaya’s approach equates to significantly more reliability and a sustainable cost advantage.” Simple systems are safer and more reliable. In turn, both of these features drive down costs.
Sustainable in cost and production is at the heart of Vaya Space. By incorporating 2 million plastic bottles into the output of each satellite, the company helps rid the earth of otherwise harmful waste. Vaya Space is a genuinely purpose-driven company. More users will migrate to satellites as safety and reliability become enmeshed in regular practice.
Vaya Space focuses on the small satellite market because they know it offers recurring revenue. When satellites return to earth, they can be relaunched and generate new revenue. According to Space.com, companies like Orbex are on the same path. Orbex just unveiled a prototype for a reusable rocket in Scotland. For now, Vaya knows where its focus is, and Willis pressed its importance when he said, “Companies that fail to focus - one thing happens, they fail.”
Fresh off the conclusion of the MRO Americas 2022 Aviation week, host Grant Harrell of the podcast “Are We There Yet?” sat down with Cam Murphy, the president of FEAM Aero — an aircraft maintenance company. The pair discussed the aviation industry, and how the global pandemic greatly affected various aspects of the field. But most importantly, how Murphy and FEAM survived in the midst of challenging changes.
Through obtaining new partnerships and pertinent planning, FEAM Aero managed to expand their business domestically and internationally, and greatly improved their relevance in aviation services.
“In the past six months we’ve acquired two companies out in Europe, really the strategic plan was the market was depressed, and we thought ‘Let's find companies that kind of fit our same culture,’ and were were able to find two phenomenial organizations that really remind us of us when we first started,” said Murphy.
In addition to the issues caused by the pandemic, many labor workers departed the industry for retirement. But exacerbating the shortage was the lack of new, incoming workers. However, Murphy stated the solution for that is more schooling and training. In a partnership with a flight academy, FEAM Aero is supporting the construction of a new aviation school to bring in new workers.
“The goal is just to really increase this pipeline … work with other the A&P schools in the area to figure out how we can produce more individuals to get involved in aerospace,” said Murphy.
Another key factor in driving FEAM Aero’s success was employee retention. Despite the initial increase in joblessness, Murphy said the company remained adamant about not letting anyone go and praised the employee morale. In choosing to invest instead, they found a silver lining.
He also stated that it’s a sign of pride when he can indicate a generation of relatives working for FEAM Aero.
Murphy also said that his company’s prioritization of employee care remains a top goal. He said that he believes entrepreneurial spirit and success is borne out of effective employee needs being met.
"For us we’re in the business of people. At the very end of the day I always say that people are the heart of kind of what we do,” said Murphy.
Are We There Yet? host Grant Harrell knows the ins and outs of the transportation industry are not always streamlined. Under James Eberhard, Founder and CEO of Fluid Truck, this is changing.
Fluid Truck does something no one else in the industry does: offers 24/7 commercial truck sharing through their innovative platform. Operating in over 45 cities, Fluid Truck helps businesses get the truck they need, when they need it.
Working with a large variety of companies, Eberhard said, “We allow them to hope onto our platform, get the truck they need, to go out there and do the job.”
Before Fluid, many businesses owned their own fleets of vehicles, which was more costly and time-consuming than outsourcing to Fluid. Now, working with Fluid Trucks, users can download an app, “You hop on our app, you set up an account, it takes a minute to set up your account, and from there you can see all the trucks around you. You get on the app, you book it, and you go out to the vehicle, unlock it through our application, you go through a very short inspection process and you’re on the road using that truck,” explained Eberhard.
The trucks can be used for hours, days, or even weeks, allowing the customers flexibility throughout the process.
Fluid Trucks can even be used for moving utilities or home project renovations for personal use, allowing true flexibility across the board.
Fluid Trucks also boasts an amazing fleet of EV trucks to choose from outside of the traditional, Eberhard said, “You’re eliminating stopping at a gas station, you’re eliminating a lot of the downtime you see off of commercial vehicles, and it really is just that better, overall experience.”
With the rise of sustainable practices on many businesses and consumers minds, Fluid Truck is certain to introduce a new era of the transportation model.
Technology continues to evolve to meet the demanding needs of various industries to improve processes, save money, and advance business objectives. Grant Harrell, host of Are We There Yet?, spoke with Marek Polčák, CEO and Founder of VRgineers, about the fascinating world of next-generation flight simulator technologies for military forces and professional pilots.
The virtual and mixed reality training systems “started with mobile phone technologies because with their development and progress they enabled the market for the manufacturing of small vector, high-resolution, high-fidelity displays,” explained Polčák. This combined with a variety of other evolving technologies including new types of sensors created the foundation for these new simulators.
Unlike traditional flight simulators, VRgineers has been able to build virtual reality headsets which are affordable and provide high-quality pictures to meet the most demanding training requirements. Polčák pointed out that legacy flight simulator systems are based on the use of multiple projectors which are projected onto a dome sphere.
These projector-based systems have many drawbacks in comparison to emerging VR technologies including cost, maintenance, and depth perception. With virtual and mixed reality, what we are able to do with headsets when we put them on, we are able to project much higher fidelity, higher resolution, and we are finally able to look literally anywhere. You have 360 degrees around you which provides an incredible immersion for pilots,” said Polčák.
VRgineers design and implement the next generation of pilot training for military units such as the US Air Force and European Air Services and private clients that include NASA, Airbus Defence & Space, Lockheed Martin, and the European Space Agency. The company is committed to bringing its technology to other industries as well and has gained traction within the automotive industry working with industry powerhouses such as BMW and Audi. And that’s just the beginning as VRgineers is identifying use cases in other sectors including architecture, training simulations, and medicine for example.
The motion that stops a car from moving into the next lane or that applies the brakes just before a fender bender can occur happens all because of radar technology. Are We There Yet? host Grant Harrell spoke with Nathan Mintz, Co-Founder and CEO of Spartan Radar, an automotive radar technology startup company, about the advancement of radar technologies into the consumer market.
“The level of autonomy a car has going into the vehicle, is going to dictate what the radar can do, and what the radar needs to do with the other sensors on the platform,” Mintz said. “It's important to also keep the system's context in mind. What the market is doing today will determine how well the radars perform.”
Currently more consumer vehicles are including radar technologies in their newer models, which use radio waves to determine the distance of an object. From lane keeping or blind spot detection to semi-autonomous driving that applies emergency braking, these systems require what Mintz refers to as “1D non-imaging radars, and as autonomy grows, radar technologies will follow.”
"The kind of technology that we're seeing is tremendous. The amount of work that is put into making the systems more monolithic, where the processors and the transceiver fits on a single chip and that chip can be mass produced by tens of millions of units and put that into radars says a lot,” Mintz said. “Now that the technologies are in the consumer markets, we expect to see more in the next few years.”
As radar technologies grow in the market, the advantages we’ll see compared to lidar technology which uses lasers to measure distance, are ramping up. “Most radars today can give you doppler resolution, and we’re seeing them be added to buses and trains, and even elevators,” he said.
Spartan Radar’s primary target is making automotive radar smarter through more improved software, a factor which Mintz said, “makes everyone's radar better, we enhance capabilities so they can get more out of the radar than normal signal function radar.”
Their innovation also allows the startup to create more software that allow radars to have more modes and functions and, “which can increase the radar resolution and adaptive resources management and software platform that lets you add more modes over time,” Mintz said.
Every parent knows the challenges of transporting their children to and from school and activities. Managing the transportation needs for a family is a never-ending chore that can be even more complicated for working parents. Grant Harrell, host of Are We There Yet?, spoke with Rebecca Lock, Founder & CEO of Kidcaboo, regarding the evolution of ridesharing for children and families.
Lock spoke to what inspired her to establish the Kidcaboo ridesharing service. Having formerly worked in both NY and LA as a reality and documentary producer for 15 years, she took a few years off after her second child was born. When both kids were old enough to go to school, Lock was eager to return to work and had an amazing job offer on the table. The only thing stopping her was securing transportation for her children.
“It sounded simple enough and I was willing to pay well but despite that fact, despite a very expensive search, I was unable to find somebody to simply drive my children to and from their nearby school,” explained Lock. Unfortunately, the inability to find reliable transportation ultimately forced Lock to turn down the job offer.
She decided to investigate the situation further. “I looked into the problem, and I did about 800 drives to understand it and the market, etc., and learned it was a huge problem that really affected the lives of working parents. And Kidcaboo was born.”
Lock went on to note that ridesharing works very well in America and is now a staple of adult life. She also thought parents and children would benefit from a ridesharing service dedicated to them but that it needed to be reimagined to address safety, consistency, and reliability concerns.
To address these issues, Kidcaboo created a system where the same driver would show up every time and utilized technology to give parents and caregivers access to live GPS tracking and dashcams that are operational throughout the duration of a ride. In addition to that, Kidcaboo created “a very complex ride monitoring system that takes place beyond what parents themselves can track just to really ensure the safety of every ride.,” said Lock.
Apps bring everything together to provide parents easy access to scheduling, dashcams, and more. Kidcaboo is presently operational throughout Texas and has received the licenses required to begin operations in Arizona. And there are more states on the horizon.
Drone delivery services have been talked about for years. The idea seemed to be in the world of science fiction with no real chance of becoming part of daily life until now. Three suburban towns in North Carolina are experiencing the joys associated with having deliveries made directly to their backyards. Grant Harrell, host of Are We There Yet?, spoke with Yariv Bash, CEO of Flytrex, regarding the arrival of drone delivery service in America.
“For three towns in North Caroline, the future is already here, and people are ordering from Starbucks, McDonald’s, Walmart, Target, and other venues on a daily basis,” said Bash And, this autonomous direct-to-customer drone delivery service will soon be available in the suburbs of Dallas, TX. It’s truly another evolution in delivery that is not only convenient but has many advantages for consumers and retailers as well as the environment.
To turn this concept into reality, Flytrex needed to identify the most efficient and cost-effective way to serve its clients. To do this, the company has set up stations within shopping centers. This maximizes exposure and allows customers to order from the restaurants and retailers within that shopping center.
Bash explained that another added benefit for restaurants and retailers is the reduced cost of the service. With traditional delivery models, customers may pay a small fee, but a restaurant can pay up to 30% which is not sustainable considering that restaurants do not make a 30% margin on what they sell. This is an “order of magnitude more affordable than using humans,” said Bash.
To address concerns that this service will be a robot taking away another job from a human being, Bash said. “You can actually take that same human, that same courier and if he has a driver’s license, he is basically overqualified to operate our systems. So instead of doing two deliveries per hour in the suburbs, he can make 10/12/15 deliveries per hour using our system.”
Listen in to learn more about this future-forward technology including how these are not your average remote-controlled drones. In fact, they are actually commercial airplanes certified by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to keep the skies and ground safe for everyone.
Paul Mitchell, President & CEO of ESN (Energy Systems Network), is also the organizer of the world’s first autonomous, head-to-head vehicle racing challenge. This historical event in motorsports took place on January 7th at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Mitchell shared the details with Grant Harrell on this episode of Are We There Yet?
“We had a head-to-head, two cars at a time, passing each other at increasingly higher speeds, fully autonomous, and the winner was successfully passing at more than 165 miles an hour,” Mitchell said. “So, we’re there in the sense of head-to-head autonomous racing. But we’ve got a long way to go to achieve the goals and aspirations that we have for the future of automation in autonomous motorsport.”
Testing of these autonomous vehicles began with student-led teams in June of 2021. The teams trained a fleet of ten cars to go from 30 MPH to eventually more than 160 MPH. The current engine limits on these vehicles are 170 MPH, but that’s not too shabby for less than a year of testing. And Mitchell said with more work on the engines; those speeds will increase.
Harrell wondered if motorsports will soon see competitions between human-crewed vehicles versus autonomous.
“We’re a long way away from having an autonomous race car that can compete, head-to-head with the world’s best drivers, whether it’s for INDYCAR, or NASCAR, or Formula 1,” Mitchell said. “What’s more likely to happen in the near term is the technology on our vehicles can enhance the safety, and the speed, and the performance of human-driven race cars.”
And while racing these autonomous vehicles is a whole heck of a lot of fun, there are more tangible benefits for the industry. “The entire racing concept is a proving ground for cutting-edge, autonomous hardware & software technologies,” Mitchell said. “We are putting on these race cars, LIDAR, radar, optical sensors, advanced computers, drive-by-wire systems, GPS, and a whole bunch of software and the advance algorithms that the University teams are coding for these vehicles."
Personal aircraft taxi service at a price comparable to the cost of a rideshare or car service in a fraction of the time? Are we there yet? Not quite, but as Martin Peryea, CEO, Jaunt Air Mobility, explained to Grant Harrell, the reality is closer than one may think.
“We are working hard to get us there,” Peryea assured Harrell. “The entire aerospace industry is working towards developing an all-electric safe aircraft. We do have a few more years of development work that needs to take place before we’re there.”
Jaunt Air Mobility’s work to make this futuristic flight dream occur combines fixed-wing aircraft technology with attributes from a helicopter to provide an efficient airplane that can take off and land vertically but cruise like an airplane. Six years ago, the technology didn’t exist to pull this off with batteries alone. Still, with advancements in battery and motor technologies, Peryea said they can now do it at Jaunt Air Mobility.
The realization of urban air mobility will occur if it’s safe, and Jaunt put safety first in its design. “Our aircraft takes advantage of the gliding capability and the auto rotation capability of both a fixed-wing airplane and a helicopter,” Peryea said. These capabilities are critical backups to guide the vehicle safely to the ground in the event of a battery power loss.
The compounded aircraft concept isn’t new. Peryea said versions of this idea existed since the 1960s, but those aircraft never made it to market for one reason or another. “Our particular aircraft design capitalizes on the technologies of a helicopter, but we have the ability to slow down the main rotor, the lifting device, in flight. And you can do that because it is being powered by electric motors.”