Last week was crazy! Clocked up several miles… but more importantly, I’m now 20 points away from my British Airways Executive Club – Silver Status!!Â
What does that mean Bal?
Not much to be fair! – basically… it means – I’ve spent an obscene amount of money on travelling…. flying… with BA!
Not just flying. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in my car. I don’t mind that…. I’m in my environment… I’m listening to my music… I’m singing along… loudly at times.Â
Then there’s the train. Getting my paper orange ticket…Â
Okay… when I’m on the London Underground… it’s all contactless…. thankfully to my Oyster card, it’s quick to get around.
Now… all of this got me thinking… which mode of transport is the most ‘digital’ or has ‘innovated’ the most.Â
For me…. I think… the airline industry.Â
Everything from the mobile tickets/passes…. to the security checks (those scanning machines where you just stand with your legs apart)….
I got off my flight from Sofia, Bulgaria last week. From the moment the plane doors opened – and to me being in my car (I had parked in Heathrow T5 Pod Parking) took me 20mins. That included, getting off the plane, from B terminal to A terminal in T5… then those passport scanning machines… onto the self driving Pod to take me to my car… and into my car!
Secondly… it’s got to be the car industry. We’re hearing a lot about self-driving cars… (which I believe will be soon on our roads). We have the Tesla auto-pilot function in Tesla’s…. now called the ‘Enhanced AutoPilot’.
Fully electric and capable of doing 300+ miles. Then there’s the BMW’s, Mercedes, Audi’s of this world… who have the hybrid models. The Japanese who were the first I believe with the hybrid cars – continue to innovate – remember Toyota investing a huge sum of money into Uber.
Finally… it’s the trains I feel.
Not much has gone into them. Unless I’ve missed it.
I keep hearing that Virgin Trains are doing a lot – with paperless tickets… and they have a Digital/Innovation team working on several items.
Yes – there’s HS2 – a high speed rail link between London and Birmingham. Which will extend to the north, through Nottingham and back to London. When will that be? – a few years for the whole thing yet.
Might have the first flying cars by then 🙂