The opportunity
Monitor vehicle health in real-time, anticipate potential failures before they occur, schedule maintenance proactively, and maximize the operational availability of transportation and logistics assets.
From “Trend Report: The Future of Trucks - Connected, Proactive and Data Driven” (May 2015)
My son and I in front of one of Volvo’s newest trucks. “The typical truck now generates 3 gigabytes of diagnostic and other information every month!” It was quite a thrill to be the opening speaker a short while ago for the annual Dealers Meeting of Volvo/Mack Trucks North America, in Dallas, Texas. My role was to talk about the future of transportation and trucking, and put in perspective how the reality today and going forward that for trucks, c onnectivity is the new horsepower! My talk focused around several broad themes; the evolution of trucks into a world of predictive diagnostic maintenance; data-driven hyper-connectivity that leads us into future efficiencies and opportunities; the increasing skills challenge that comes with the shift; and the opportunity that this presents to dealers as we move into an era of sophisticated, post-sale, connected service and support. That was a mouthful! Going in, I already knew I’d be speaking in the exact same conference room where a few years ago, I was the opening keynote speaker for the Texas Municipal League. In the audience at time I had more than 2,500 mayors and other elected officials of cities and towns large and small from throughout the state of Texas. And it’s just a few days after President Obama swept to his second term in office - and so I needed to move these folks into thinking about the opportunities of the future! Here’s a clip from that talk, in which I was speaking how quickly the intelligent infrastructure of the 21st — including intelligent highway technology — was becoming a big part of our world. That’s part of the approach I took for the Volvo / Mac Trucks event as well, opening with a quote from their CEO which really summarizes the connectivity being built into the next generation of transportation technology: “ We are rapidly approaching the point at which no trucks will ever really be ‘offline.’ ”
maintenance and warranty staff who can work with the new prognostic capabilities and realign their efforts
How quickly will this come about? Pretty fast: consider this observation” “It is early spring in 2018. Most major fleets have become such sophisticated users of data to do prognostics or predictive maintenance these days that they don’t even use the predictive word anymore. It is just part and parcel of routine maintenance—business as usual” Maintenance in the cloud, 16 March 2015, Fleet Owner
From “AI Megatrends - AI In Energy : Connected, Intelligent Energy and Energy SaaS” (June 2023)
battery recycling : most electric vehicle batteries are designed for a lifespan of about 12 years before they lose efficiency, but they can be repurposed and reused in microgrid energy storage solutions for a ‘second life’. One company, Connected Energy in the UK, has equity investment from Volvo, Caterpillar, and others, who recognize the emerging secondary market for used batteries. Connected Energy will specialize in taking old car batteries and building them into large-scale commercial energy storage systems.
Predictive Maintenance: AI can be used to predict equipment failures before they occur, allowing utilities to perform maintenance and avoid costly, unexpected downtime.
Predictive Maintenance : Similar to utilities, AI can be used in homes to predict when HVAC or other systems may require maintenance, thereby avoiding unexpected failures and improving overall energy efficiency.
From “Decoding Tomorrow: 30 Megatrends - #2 : Ambient Intelligence - ""AI is the invisible architect dissolving computing into the very fabric of our lives.”” (June 2025)
Even so, it’s going to happen, My original predictions suggested that these devices would possess a degree of “intelligence ,” but I didn’t anticipate the massive acceleration of all trends related to AI. Thinking about it now, it seems that AI will provide the ” brain ” for this vast network of connected devices, transforming mere connectivity into true ” smartness .” This integration, now referred to as AIoT, enables devices to learn from data, make autonomous decisions, and automate tasks at a scale and speed far beyond what we can do. It allows for real-time data analysis, informed decision-making, and continuous performance improvement by learning from patterns.
Predictive Maintenance : AI analyzes vast amounts of IoT sensor data from urban infrastructure (like bridges, roads, water systems, and power grids) to detect potential failures before they occur, significantly reducing downtime and maintenance costs. Trucks report when they are going to break down, before they break down. This is a key application in manufacturing and logistics as well, with digital twins offering enhanced predictive insights.
Why? These billions of connected IoT devices generate massive amounts of data. This data is being processed by ever more advanced algorithms to create real-time insights, predictive capabilities, and automation. This symbiotic relationship means that as more IoT devices are deployed, they generate more data, which in turn improves AI models, making IoT devices smarter and more valuable, thereby driving further adoption. It’s an acceleration feedback loop.
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
Trend Report: The Future of Trucks - Connected, Proactive and Data Driven
AI Megatrends - AI In Energy : Connected, Intelligent Energy and Energy SaaS
Decoding Tomorrow: 30 Megatrends - #2 : Ambient Intelligence - ""AI is the invisible architect dissolving computing into the very fabric of our lives.”