Laetitia Dablanc, professor at the University Gustave Eiffel, says urban logistics in large cities already delivers the goods. The gap she names is planner skill, not a missing technology.
She places the most sophisticated logistics in large cities, defines a megacity as a connection of up to about 40 million people, and splits the field into warehousing and transportation. E-commerce, in her account, can be better for CO2 than store retail and worse for the quality of the jobs.
Robots already do the worst warehouse work. Transport models are about 20 years behind the city they describe. She is hopeful because solar panels, new vegetation, and a swimmable Seine are already here, and because she educates about 10 people a year to use that kind of tool.
(00:00) Cities are the future
(02:50) What a city is
(06:29) Mega-regions as one connection
(07:56) Warehousing and transport
(10:36) The goods system already works
(12:59) Air, noise, and the jobs
(15:16) E-commerce, carbon, and work
(17:08) Automation and warehouse robots
(20:45) Planner skills are the concern
(24:12) Transport models left behind
(27:35) Where skills still concentrate
(31:08) Hope, because the tools exist
(33:44) Engineering that is already here
(37:57) Educating ten experts a year
Show notes
What is The Future for Cities?
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