Autonomous Vehicles at Work – Delivering Fruit & Vegetables

Let’s follow the rest of Tanya’s tomatoes, and Greg’s green peppers too, while we’re at it. They were all picked up by the same Autonomous Vehicle going down the street toward the high-speed A-Way. Let’s say that the nearest high-speed A-Way runs North/South.

Assume that 2 of Tanya’s tomatoes are going North and 2 South. And the same for Greg’s green peppers, 8 North and 8 South. So the Fruit Containers need to be split and loaded onto a Northbound Autonomous Vehicle and a Southbound Autonomous Vehicle.

Of course these Autonomous Vehicles aren’t equipped to go on a high speed A-Way, so they need to be loaded onto larger Autonomous Vehicles, which I’ve called Continuous Convoy Vehicles that are designed for this high-speed A-Way. Note that we have room for a lot of Fruit Containers on this Convoy Vehicle – I’ll talk more about this later.

This Convoy Vehicle is going to accelerate so it can link in at the front of the approaching Convoy. This is the diagram I’ve used before to show the process, but we’ll go into more detail now.

Now let’s think about how En Route Sequencing is going to work in this example. Let’s assume that 1 of Tanya’s northbound tomatoes is going to the next station, along with 1 of Greg’s green peppers.

As soon as the Convoy Vehicle links with the Convoy, that tomato and green pepper need to speed back to the last Convoy Vehicle which is soon going to decouple from the Convoy and decelerate to stop at the next station. This means that that tomato and green pepper need to be in an Autonomous Vehicle that only has Containers destined for that next station. And that Autonomous Vehicle must be at the back of the Convoy Vehicle so it can race back through to the last Convoy Vehicle without any interference from other Autonomous Vehicles.

While the Convoy Vehicle is slowing down, unless that tomato and green pepper are going to destinations on the same route, they need to move to different Autonomous Vehicles so they can be delivered quickly.

Once the Autonomous Vehicles carrying that tomato and green pepper get off the Convoy Vehicle at the next station, they may even move through other Autonomous Vehicle before being delivered to their respective destinations, similar to how Fran received her tomato. And it’s only 4:45 pm, so they are in good time for dinner, as ordered.

Similarly, if one of Greg’s green peppers is going to the station after the next station, it needs to be in an Autonomous Vehicle going to that station, and needs to be just behind those Autonomous Vehicles going to the last Convoy Vehicle, because it doesn’t have a lot more time to get to the next to the last Convoy Vehicle.

The remaining tomatoes and green peppers have more time to get to the Convoy Vehicle that will stop at their station. So we can expect an intricate dance of Autonomous Vehicles moving among Convoy Vehicles, and Fruit Containers moving among Autonomous Vehicles, each one on an efficient route to its final destination.

One additional challenge, depending on the distance to the next station, the speed of the Convoy, and the deceleration rate of the Convoy Vehicle, that last Convoy Vehicle may detach from the Convoy before the Autonomous Vehicle with Tanya’s tomato and Greg’s green pepper could make it there. In this case, they shouldn’t get on the high-speed A-Way at all, but need to find a local route, perhaps using a slower A-Way.

Autonomous Vehicles at Work – Delivering Tomatoes

I’ve been asked to give more detail about how this system would work, so let’s look at an example.

Well start with Tanya, who is an expert tomato grower. In particular she grows Brandywine Heirloom tomatoes, which are considered among the best because of their great tomatoey flavor and large size. Unfortunately, they are susceptible to all sorts of pests, so growing them is a challenge, a challenge Tanya has mastered.

On this particular day Tanya has 5 perfect tomatoes ready to ship. She has promised one to her friend Fran, who lives about a half-mile down the road. Two others are going to members of her CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) [24 June 6, 2013 Community Supported Agriculture – CSA, and Fresh Food Delivery], and she has sold two on the “spot market for tomatoes” – yes that will come J. All of 5 of these tomatoes were ordered to be delivered, fresh-picked, in time for dinner, by 5:00 pm.

I’ve already talked about the effects of CSA’s on farming, the impact that Autonomous Vehicles could have on CSA’s, and how this could move to "Crowd-Sourced Agriculture", which is what I am describing here.

Let’s start by following the tomato going from Tanya to Fran. At 4:23 pm an Autonomous Vehicle delivers 5 Fruit Containers and corresponding Mobility Platforms to Tanya’s Autonomous Door or A-Door. They are called Fruit Containers because they are the perfect size for individual fruits and vegetables – yes tomatoes are fruits J. They of course work for anything you can fit in them, such as a pound of walnuts, 2 cups of flour, a softball, but not a bunch of celery or a pizza – I’ll get to those later.

Each of these Fruit Containers and Mobility Platforms presents a unique code, prearranged with Tanya’s Autonomous Door, so they are automatically permitted to enter — this is one of the security features of C⁴ that I’ll describe in more detail later, but one feature is that the Containers show they haven’t been opened since they were last sterilized, just as Tanya specified — they wouldn't have been delivered otherwise.

Tanya directs them to scurry back to her greenhouse, and she puts one prize tomato in each Fruit Carrier. Because Tanya is so proud of her perfect tomatoes, she first wraps each in an elegant cushioning cloth with her own logo – she can afford this because her prize tomatoes demand such a high price.

As soon as Tanya has closed each Fruit Container it scurries back to her A-Door and signals that it is ready to be picked up for delivery. At 4:31 pm an Autonomous Vehicle arrives and picks up the 5 Fruit Containers and Mobility Platforms and whisks them along the A-Way.

A half-mile down the road the Autonomous Vehicle stops to pick up 8 Fruit Containers and Mobility Platforms, each containing a green pepper from Greg. Fran lives 2 doors down from Greg, so the Fruit Container and Mobility Platform containing Tanya’s tomato leaves the Autonomous Vehicle and moves to Fran’s A-Door, where it is expected.

It’s 4:35 pm, so the tomato is just in time to be the centerpiece of Fran’s salad – her guests will be amazed.

When Fran takes Tanya’s tomato out of the Fruit Container, it goes back to her A-Door and signals that it is ready to be picked up to be sterilized and then off to deliver the next order, still in plenty of time for dinner.