Lior Ron has spent the last dozen year of his professional life imagining new realties.
      As a member of Google’s mapping division, he helped scale Google Maps from 10 million users to more than 1 billion. Later, he co-founded Otto, a self-driving trucking company Uber acquired in 2016.
      Now Mr. Ron is taking on the centuries-old logistics market as the head of Uber Freight, shepherding the enterprise’s daring aim to bring the offline logistics universe online.
      “We fundamentally believe there’s a new era of opportunity in logistics,” Ron said at the 38th annual William A. Patterson Transportation Lecture hosted by the Northwestern University Transportation Center. “Technology streamlines things, connects things and that builds trust in physical networks.”

Understanding The Past And The Pain Points

      Lior Ron began his 75-minute program traveling back thousands of years to the earliest eras of trade. He reviewed game-changing innovations and highlighted Uber Freight’s vision for a more efficient logistics landscape.
      As trade became more commonplace in early civilizations, Lior Ron describes roads as the first technological breakthrough – “the initial unlock,” he said.
      “Later innovations such as currency and containerization, a 20th century development, ushered in new levels of trade growth and logistics, while digital-age advancements like Google Maps and warehousing software have propelled new growth opportunities, with the logistics market currently representing 12 percent of global GDP.”
      “There’s an even greater need for solutions that bring value to industry stakeholders besieged by rising costs, a 98 percent driver turnover rate and a litany of inefficiencies ranging from long delays at facilities to “empty” miles in which trucks run with vacant trailers.
      “[Logistics] is running in the wrong direction … and the entire ecosystem is struggling,” Ron said.
      According to Lior Ron, recent technological developments such as a mobile-enabled workforce, fully connected assets and an intelligent, self-learning network have created “a perfect storm” for improvements.
       Leveraging these technological advancements, Uber Freight’s business-to-business app – clutching many of the same user friendly, supply-and-demand tenets of its ubiquitous consumer ride-share platform – matches carriers and shippers to create logistics on demand.
      “We want to connect the right truck at the right time with the right shipper at the right price, and make this entire process as streamlined as possible,” he said.
      He also noted the viability of self-driving trucks.
      Showing a brief animated video to illustrate the potential of autonomous trucking, Ron said a driver could begin a trip at an origin facility and then transfer that load to a self-driving truck for ramp-to-ramp highway haul before another local driver receives the load and delivers it to the final destination.
      “Those first and last miles remain critical,” Ron said.
      Ending his Patterson Lecture with a lively and transparent Q&A session, Ron addressed a range of audience questions around issues such as barriers to working with shippers, Uber Freight’s plans for international expansion and the feasibility of truck platooning. He also touched on innovations in warehousing and loading trucks and said technology continues “stepping up the requirements to run a business efficiently.”
Geoffrey

Editor’s Note:  Patterson United . . . At Northwestern University Transportation Center, the Annual William A. Patterson Distinguished Transportation Lecture is named for William A. "Pat" Patterson. In 1980, the NUTC established the Lecture as an integral part of the Patterson Endowment. It has since become an annual highlight at Northwestern University, drawing influential speakers from all facets of the transportation industry. William A. "Pat" Patterson was a central figure in the United States air transport industry for more than four decades. He served as president and chairman of United Airlines from 1934 until his retirement in 1966. He was a life trustee of Northwestern University and was instrumental in the establishment and strategic leadership of the Transportation Center.