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.