How drones, driverless cars and new technology will change cities like Adelaide and how we live our lives
WILL Adelaide’s future be like the movie Blade Runner? Darryl Gobbett, chief economist at Adelaide stockbroker Baillieu Holst, talks about how driverless cars and drones could transform our city.
WHEN Hollywood film director Ridley Scott put out Blade Runner in 1982, he based the dramatic opening shot of the sci-fi classic on his native northeast England and the blue-collar Middlesbrough with its vast chemical plants and steelworks lighting up the night sky.
The storyline was naff — police officer Harrison Ford chasing down escaped human clones — but the film’s success lay in the visual.
It was fast and breathtaking and noted for its “spinners”, flying cars that could take off vertically, hover, and cruise.
Sci-fi or total hokum then? Both possibly but it is worth noting the film was set in 2019 — scrape away the scepticism and Scott’s vision of the city of the future is not so far-fetched.
Darryl Gobbett, chief economist at Adelaide stockbroker Baillieu Holst, does not own a spinner but the coming change in how we live may well prompt him to put in an order.
“South Australia is going through much change with the decline of mass manufacturing. We should plan for the future right now,” he says.
“The move to driverless cars means carparks will be needed less. Do we need more carparks in 20 years’ time, will they serve a different purpose? A lot of cars on the road won’t need car parking.”
The knock-on, and unthought of, effects are myriad, he says.
“Driverless cars insurance policies are now in the USA, it’s a new thinking,” Mr Gobbett says.
Petrol stations are disappearing, he says, because people are driving cars further and needing less petrol.
“On King William Rd (Unley) there were three BPs in the ’80s but not now. There are spatial change in our cities, it’s no good thinking about things in 10 years’ time,” he says.
The revision of how we live will be vast.
“ATMs will be gone within 10 years (vast online transactions the cause), the same thing has destroyed DVDs, Blockbusters have turned into gyms, bookshops have disappeared in Westfield,” Mr Gobbett says.
The introduction of drones, though, is still mind-twisting.
“Four of the top 10 companies in the recent Techstars (accelerator) program were to do with drones,” he says. “Amazon has already patented an idea where drones land on buildings. If I am putting up a building in the middle of a city do I need to think about a drone platform rather than cars?”
Then there is air rights ownership and where drones fly, haphazardly over the city or along the roads below? And, before credibility is truly stretched, the clincher.
“Did anyone expect what happened with mobile phones, in the 1990s? The motor car created most modern cities, railways before that led to radial living. What’s the next phase?” he asks.
Rita Excell is executive director of the Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI). The push behind the introduction of driverless vehicles is simple, she says. Safety.
“Twelve hundred people are killed on Australia’s roads each year, that’s something fundamentally wrong with our transport system,” she said at the SA Major Projects conference in Adelaide this week.
“Drivers are responsible for 90 per cent of crashes. If we can take away some of these critical decisions and give them to technology, we are going to get a better safety outcome.”
SA will fund driverless vehicle trials via Flinders University and car manufacturers. The offshoots are enormous and will instigate new ways of thinking.
“Who is liable in the event of a crash? Insurers will play a big role in persuading people they are covered,” Ms Excell says. There is too, the infrastructure knock on.
“The supporting ecosystem means it’s going to mean different things to different industries. We can expect multistorey carparks transformed into community spaces, on-street parking becoming a cycle lane and home garages used as green space.”
Ultimately, driverless vehicles will underpin new urban city structures making it critical to recognise this technology as central to transport planning, Ms Excell says.
Associate professor Nick Falkner is director of the University of Adelaide’s Australian Smart Cities Consortium. and says it’s all about how we take technology forward.
“We have become accustomed to these ideas through science fiction for a long time, Will Smith’s I, Robot had a similar idea to drones, though being Hollywood, there is no movie without a disaster,” he says.
“Fewer young people are getting driving licences globally, carparks are becoming more expensive, Uber is a taxi rank in effect.”
And while the current burst forward might appear dizzying, there are explanations.
“We are in the middle of a pretty major transformation through the availability of competing resources and by manufacturing and density changes. Right now we are in the fast phase,” Mr Falkner says.
Intriguingly, the car that we have all grown up with, looks to have had its day.
“Cities have been designed around cars for the past 100 years (only), which is incredible. Now we are talking about the possibility of doing without them,” he says.
Mr Falkner believes Adelaide will not be left behind.
“Adelaide is a hub of innovation, for entrepreneurs there has never been a better time. I’ve looked at Forbes’ Top 5 world smart cities and Adelaide is doing everything they are. We are doing exciting stuff, we are a big player,” he says.
UDIA (SA) chief executive Pat Gerace says the rate of change in cities brings excitement.
“If we more actively explore and seek out new opportunities to champion future ways of living and doing business, and also foster more of a culture of giving our young thinkers a chance, we can do great things,” he says.
Meanwhile, Adelaide architect, urban planner and university lecturer David Cooke, takes a strident approach to how technology is applied. It’s more than just plugging it in, he said, redesign should throw up such basic questions as “do we even need a road?”.
Mr Cooke, who is part of the Urban Environment Task Force for Australia/NZ, says it’s about thinking how to redesign our cities and using technology creatively.
“New York, through LinkNYC, has beautiful technologies where wi-fi has replaced phone boxes, but people are just setting up businesses on adjacent pavements and are not adding to the city fabric,” he says.
“I believe Adelaide has an opportunity and is on the international stage. We’re in the front pack, a good size, like Brisbane and Vancouver, where things can be tested and it’s easier to get through government legislation.”
Much innovation is technically illegal he said, you need to work out how to get through the legislation.
“We do have good proactive leadership and aspirations, we need to implement and deliver and not just follow,” Mr Cooke says.
And it’s happening says Pat Gerace. “The Government and Adelaide City Council’s GigCity, Tonsley innovation precinct and the ADVI are steps in the right direction but we need to do more.”