No. 895: Tires are entering into the stage of IoT (November 22, 2018)

Technology:

Bridgestone will put more management resources to business involved in automated driving and car sharing to survive in the days of IoT where everything is connected on the Internet. The future automobile industry is said to be featured by CASE that stands for connected, automated, sharing, and electric. World automobile sales are estimated at 100 million units in 2023, about 2 million units, or 2%, of which will be for car sharing thereafter because of the shift from owning to utilizing. Thanks to the shift, the world tire market is expected to grow by 2% per year from about 4,000 billion yen in 2017 to 4,700 billion yen in 2025. The shift increases automobile utilization rate, and increased automobile utilization rate increases exchange frequency of tires.

To be ready for the shift, data analysis is crucial. A sensor is attached to a tire to collect data on travel distance and operational status. These data are helpful to know the timing of inspection and service in advance. Bridgestone has been accumulating the know-how to collect such data using mining vehicles. Michelin of France is monitoring the air pressure and inside temperature of a tire using the sensor attached to a tire. It informs the tire administrator of the current status when data go down below the standard values.

Komatsu installs its remote control monitoring system named Komtrax all its construction machines operating in the world for preventive maintenance and energy-saving operation. Hitachi that concluded a nearly 30 years’ maintenance contract with the high-speed railway of Great Britain installs about 40,000 sensors installed on each railway car, through which it collects data for efficient maintenance. Competition in the sales of vehicles and machines in the construction business has already entered into a new stage that asks manufacturers to realize added-value with the help of 5G, the next-generation communication standard.

The truth about Bridgestone Tires

Komatsu’s Komtrax service

24 Hours at Hitachi’s Ashford Train Maintenance Center

No. 894: A new organization to make space travel a reality is set up in Japan (November 21, 2018)

Market trend:

A total of six companies including ANAHoldings, Marubeni Corporation, Airbus Japan, Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation, and Mitsui Fudosan have establish an organization to open a base with a runway necessary for landing and takeoff of space ship to realize space travel by the private sector. Naoko Yamazaki, an astronaut, will be the representative director of this organization. The new organization named Space Port Japan plans to open a base with a 3,000-meter-long runway to allow an airplane-type space ship to depart to and return from space toward 2021.

ANA Holdings is actively strengthening and expanding space-related business through investing in venture companies developing space ships. There are currently about 10 commercial space ports in the U.S., and European countries including Great Britain, Italy, and Spain have a plan to construct a space port. It plans to construct the first space port in Asia in 2021 to take initiative in the space business.

The world’s first space port in the State of New Mexico, the U.S.

Space travel channel by Club Tourism