Monthly Archives: October 2013

Asymcar 6: Peak Horse

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Steve Crandall brings a new perspective as a guest. Steve’s analysis of complex systems has given him a huge pool of wisdom into which we dip our dainty spoons.

We survey the interlopers seeking to replace many jobs that cars have traditionally done, from horses to bicycles, planes, trains and buses.

We dive deeper into a few earlier Asymcar topics including energy, regulation, infrastructure, power train evolution, societal changes, distribution networks, urbanization and consider the promise of electric bicycles.

Several innovation timing lessons temper our expectations for immediate improvements.

Finally, we revisit the emerging transportation information layer and how such services may change public behavior and the auto-ecosystem.

33mb mp3 about 63 minutes.

Subscribe to Asymcar podcasts via iTunes or RSS.

Notes:

National Geographic Tata Nano Factory Documentary

Why the world’s cheapest car flopped.

Asymcar 5: A Faster Horse

Asymcar 5

Of Phaetons, Coupés, Shooting Brakes, Broughams, Hackneys, Cabriolets, Landaus and Limousines. Horace and Jim step back in time to revisit the raison d’être for carriages and the emerging “horseless” carriage. We explore how evolution rather than revolution of networks influenced the technologies of transportation.

The question of foothold markets comes up and we explore which jobs-to-be-done affected early car design. The leap from these early jobs to the modern segmentation of the market is observed through Henry Ford’s approach to the then agrarian market compared with Alfred Sloan’s portfolio strategy at General Motors.

The discussion morphs into a brief infrastructure review where the development of roads is compared to today’s telco operator business and regulatory models.

Finally, Horace and Jim drift into insurance and discuss the risk pooling implications of driverless cars.

30mb mp3 about 62 minutes.

Subscribe to Asymcar podcasts via iTunes or RSS.

Notes:

Carl Fisher

Henry Ford’s birthday was 150 years ago.

Alfred Sloan

The Ethics of Autonomous Cars