 This is St. Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. Hey, Aloha! How are you doing? Gordo the Texar here. Welcome to another exciting and thrilling episode of Hibachi Talk. Got my co-host here, Rick the Fundmeister. And we also have with us today Hamish McBuffet. It's our new theme song. A hurricane or a bomb threat. It could be a bomb threat. It could be anything you want. It's five o'clock somewhere. Thank you Hamish. All alive and well. And as silly as ever. So anyway, we have no guest today because we're going to talk about something that's very interesting to both Rick's and I. And it was an announcement that happened today at the computer electronic show last week. So grab yourself a chair, pull up a libation and sit down. And so the consumer electronic show was last week was in Las Wages. And Toyota announced an unmanned vehicle called an E-Palette. What an interesting name. I kept trying to go like, it's my taste buds or I'm still not sure about the name. But it was recognized as one of the top innovative pieces of technology going forward in the future. So we're going to talk. And it's an unmanned vehicle. Self-driving. Self-driving vehicle that uses, let's throw up one of the pictures right now. And it uses a Toyota's mobility services platform for it to get around. So the software has been developed and so on. So it looks like this. So this is what one of them looks like. And kind of cool. And we're going to show you what the concepts are for what this vehicle can be used for. Now, you're going to see this vehicle in 2020 in the United States. So that's already been predicted. But sooner. But sooner in Asia. Yeah. So in Japan. So it's going to be really kind of a fun thing to talk about. So it led me to talk, because you and I both like to drive. Love to drive. We both have cars. We have, you know, and you've been known to put the pedal to the metal a little bit. Yeah, I put the brake pedal to the metal. Yeah, there you go. And so it's going to slow it down. So how are we, as we get, unfortunately, we're getting older and it's not that easy to drive. So we're going to spend a little time, we're going to talk about self-driving cars. You know, unmanned vehicles. And what does that mean to us? So do you really think we're going to have unmanned vehicles? I do. There's no question in my mind. Just no question. And, you know, the picture there and the other pictures. Yeah. Are they going to be next year, the year after, in Japan? No. I have no question about that. And especially if Toyota stands behind it. And when Toyota announced this, their partners in this vehicle, these vehicles are Mazda. Amazon. Pizza Hut. You know, so you go down the list of all of these, all these, I think, Lyft. Or Uber or Lyft, one of the other. They're all partners with Toyota in this e-palette vehicle. Vehicle. Yeah. Unmanned electronic vehicle. Yeah. Which, we've got a car. Yeah, I guess you can't really call it a car. It's a vehicle. But then, beyond that as well, or, you know, it's not so unique, I'll say, to have Toyota and their partners come out and say, we're going to release something in 2019 in Japan. Because in November, General Motors, their CEO announced that they will have a driverless vehicle that they are going to release, or they want the government approval to release it. Approval to release a vehicle, a driverless vehicle that has no pedals and no steering wheel in it in 2019. So the same, I mean, they're... Will you be able to sit in that car and look out the window? I mean, I... I love to drive. I know. So, talk about the ultimate backseat driver, but you've got nowhere to go. And I'm just wondering if I'm going to get some version of car sickness because I can't do anything with it. What I will tell you is, my wife will probably... My expectation is she will like the unmanned driver. Far better than you. Far better than me driving. Well, my wife won't let me drive when she's in the car, so I don't have a chance. I just open up the door, she gets in the driver's seat. I don't even ask anymore. I just do it. So I only get to drive with them by myself. So that's... It's going to be interesting though. And I think you're right. I think we're going to have unmanned vehicles. And people are going to say, but no, no, no. And I go, well, let's think about when the car first came out, they said everybody wouldn't have a car because there wasn't enough chauffeurs to go around. Because remember? No chauffeurs. You had enough people because you and I didn't drive the car. We had our man drive the car. So you had a driver. And same with telephones, right? Oh, not everybody can have a telephone because we can't get enough telephone operators. Now look at where we are today for this. We really don't have any phones. Yeah, we have a mobile device. So I think in the high likelihood of electronic unmanned vehicles, we're going to see a lot of them coming up in the real news preacher. Someone's telling me that the University of Arizona or Arizona State, they're piloting unmanned vehicles to jockey students around the campus. And that's pretty damn good. Yeah. And you keep within the confines of the campus where there isn't... I'm presuming there isn't regular vehicle, vehicular traffic, much other than that. And it's a great way sort of a first test to see how do the unmanned vehicles work. How are they going to work and so on. So we can skip to bring up the next slide. I just want to kind of show you because really when we're talking about unmanned vehicles, we're talking about software. We're really talking about applications and the software. Because the vehicle is the vehicle is the vehicle. But then you've got all of this technology, underlying technology that's in there, which is the software. And so I got a picture if we could pop that up. Well, let's show this. So here's one. I like this one. This is very cool. This is another version of the Battery Electric Autonomous Platform they call it. This is again an e-palette. And we're in ridesharing. So how's that? Yeah. And so it makes sense to me to have driverless or autonomous ridesharing. Because I call it on my cell phone today. And it comes to me. It knows where I am. That's facial recognition. So when you get on it charges your account. There you go. And then and it knows where to look. If there's a crowd, it can come and find me with facial recognition as well. That's very cool. Yeah. So somewhere in this sort of geographic location along this sort of, you know, 10, 15 foot yard. It can pick me out. So if I'm coming out of an event, you know, a band at the Blaisdale or something like that, you'll know who I am. You'll know who you are. And say, yeah, you're the guy. You're the guy. And on you get. So let's, let's take this to the next level on rail. So rail. Okay. So if you think rail, they're talking, you know, the rail as the, you know, this, another great government project, you know, name one government project that's been done successfully. Well, name one. We, we got to the moon. Okay. You know, that's true. But that was a federal project. That was a federal project. So from a state perspective or a sitting and counting perspective, I'm going to stay away from answering those questions that you don't need to. But so, you know, there's all this debate going on about, you know, whether or not we should stop the rail at Middle Street, right? And not condemn all the properties that are in the down, coming within the downtown area. And, and should you have a, as you come into the downtown area, should it still be elevated, elevated rail, or should it come down and go through? Well, if I stop it at Middle Street and I have a fleet of these e-pallets, right? That use, that use technology to know which are the best routes to date. Yeah. I can, I get off the train. I get on the e-pallet that drops me off at hotel and Alakaya or wherever or Bishops and such, such and such. And there's just a fleet of them, right? As you come off, they're there and you just jump on the one and away you go. And within minutes, you are in the downtown area. And the greatest thing, I mean, it can use the technology that we have today, you know, MapQuest or whatever. Why? Yeah, those kinds of things that say, okay, there are three or four different ways that I can get from the terminal at Middle Street to where I want to get off on Bishop Street and for the next 10, 15 minutes. What, what's the traffic? What's the best way to go? Right. Is there a wreck here? I got to go around here. You know, so. Are you designate certain roads that will be for e-pallet type vehicles anyway? Yeah. So you can't take your car on that road. It's not, your car will not, if you, if you want to bring your car into town, you can. But we've given you another, you know, there's be a lot less costly. Parking, you know, and the way you could do that is parking in the city, you know, the downtown city might have to be very, very expensive. Yeah. Well, and it is in London. Yeah. It is in San Francisco. And there you go. And it is in New York. There's a deterrent to do that to drive because we provide you a way to do that. A way to get in there. So, so. But there's, there's a couple of ways to do that too. Maybe if I want to close in a small one, but if I want to get off at Middle Street and, you know, God forbid for the University of Hawaii that I go back to college, but, you know, if maybe I go right to the UH and maybe it's a long bus. Or it's a train of them. Train, yeah, of them that go there because that's another major destination. Right. And then there'll be white key. White key. It's a major, major destination. And then there'll be, you know, kind of smaller get to all the ones that get you around. So, yeah. So I, I see, I think this is why this has got, it's got legs. This has got, or it's got wheels. I mean, it's got, it's got traction. These are all kinds of puns coming out here. Because this has, this has the potential. It'll be a lot less costly. A lot less costly than building the rest of the rail project to all the way down to here. Or Alamoana. But some of the great things about it as well, though, is it'll take traffic off of the highways, off of the freeway. Yeah. And, and. Because it will go far enough to get me to where I need to go. Oh, yeah. It's true. That's true. Okay. So we're going to, we actually going to take a short break. Well, Angus is here. He's got something. Oh, great. So Angus has got something. We're going to take a short break. We're going to come back and we're going to show some more pictures of these e-pallet vehicles and some of the concepts that Toyota has for what else they can be used for. Beyond just transportation. It's going to be kind of cool. Very. All right. Garner, the techs are here with Rick, the fundmeister, and we'll be back in a minute. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Match day is no ordinary day. The pitch, hallowed ground for players and supporters Excitement builds. Game plans are made with responsibility in mind. Celebrations are underway. Ready for kickoff. MLS clubs and our supporters rise to the challenge. We make responsible decisions while we cheer on our heroes and toast their success. Elevate your match day experience. If you drink, never drive. I'm Helen Dora Hayden, the host of Voice of the Veteran. I'm here live every Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. As a fellow veteran and veteran's advocate with over 23 years experience serving veterans, active duty, and family members, I hope to educate everyone on benefits and accessibility services by inviting professionals in the field to appear on the show. In addition, I hope to plan on inviting guest veterans to talk about their concerns and possibly offer solutions. As we navigate and work together through issues, we can all benefit. Please join me every Thursday at 1 p.m. for the Voice of the Veteran. Aloha. So Riggs, wake up now. You're like Andrew. You fell asleep at that switch. That's why, you know, I need to not drive anymore. You know, I'm going to be close enough. I've got to have self-driving vehicles. Yeah, you're going to have that. You're going to need a self-driving coach. Well, for the most of us, happy to be back here. It's great. And of course, Angus has a little bit to say on this topic. Our pilot, I came up really thematic, right? So I came up with this concept. I think about all these automatic cars and driving around. And I didn't get any legs, so it's great. I'd be able to get on one of these greats. But you know, I'm glad these self-driving vehicles are not made by Microsoft. You think about it. Why is that? It would reboot every patch Tuesday. It would hold up traffic and windows would crash. We couldn't open the windows. I don't know. The windows are a little hard to be pounding away. So good to hear that Microsoft's not getting into the autonomous vehicle. Well, thanks. Goodness. We hope so for you. For me, we really hope so for my own safety. And let me say it then, if any of my segments, let your wing game be, or area be, a little hot. Thank you, Microsoft. Well, thank you. And you know, we've got Angus. We opened up with Hamish. What's left? Yeah. What could possibly be left? Exactly. So anyway, we're talking about the Toyota E-Pallet, a consumer electronics show, recognizing one of the top innovative technologies of the future. Coming out in 2019 in Japan, 2020 in the continental U.S. And we've talked about it using for transportation. But let me throw up another photograph here. This is a picture we have. These are some of the concepts. Well, can I just kind of maybe start? Oh, you want to jump in? Go ahead. Yeah. I think the really interesting thing and probably more important of that is, you know, I think we probably all kind of thought that, you know, perhaps the self-driving car is going to be further down the road and further down the road. It is coming. It's on the way. Next year. GM? GM is, yeah, is talking, you know, they're asking the federal government to give them their approval to, and they said mass-produced. Yeah. You know, it wasn't, oh yeah, we're going to put six or eight cars, test them out and put them on the road. They asked for approval to mass-produce. Mass-produce. This is self-driving vehicle. Yeah. It's coming right around the corner. It is. It is. So here's some other ideas besides just using it for a motor transportation, and we'll pop up this slide and hold it up for a little while so we can see here. So, and we'll walk through each one of these as kind of a little scenario. So what is e-commerce? So what if I put my little retail store in one of these? If I sell particular products, I can design one of these that it has my little retail store, that I drive somewhere and open up at a farmer's market at wherever I wanted to take this thing, I can do it and open up and there's my shop. All set and ready to go. And you, didn't you say that Pizza Hut was... Pizza Hut is a partner in this product. So you see one of the... Yeah. There's a picture of the truck with the pizza. You put a pizza oven in the truck and the vehicle. Yeah. And so there may be a Pizza Hut truck in my neighborhood. Right. And you just come by with a freshly baked pizza. Yeah. When I call them up and yeah, it won't take 45, you know, 30 minutes, 45 minutes. It'll be coming right there. Cook-Centrally, yeah. Yeah, it's awesome. So another one they have, another one they have is see the one on the lab, one at the top right-hand corner? So what about diagnostic laboratory services? Exactly. What about dialysis? Dialysis. So what if you have dialysis? What about the blood bank? There you go. Is that a big van? You could take the blood bank around and be able to do... To move from neighborhood to neighborhood. Yeah. And then so you bring the opportunities to you. So dialysis, the blood bank of Hawaii could be using something like this. You look at the one below the diagnostic laboratory services. The one below has this guy using as his office. Yeah. There's your office. You use it as your office on your way to work to go to your office. Well then why do I need an office? Yeah. But I mean, there's this kind of thing. You know where Amazon comes in with delivery? Walmart? Grocery source? Safeway? Food Land? Whole Foods? All of those could be doing your grocery deliveries to you. Exactly. And even, I mean, as you're talking about Amazon or what? FedEx or... DHL. VHL. Yeah. Yeah. UPS. The postal service. Yeah. I mean the only thing would be if they, they could, the truck could deliver to my place, you know, my, my, my home or my business is there. And then just call me and say, here, I'm here and deliver my package. It would probably have to be, it can only be this size and this weight. Right. But to just call me and say we're here, can you please come get your package? Well, you know, they have electronic carts. Remember, um, remember computers that we use from hospital cows? Yes. Yeah. And, you know, so cows, computers on wheels, what about the pharmacy disposal? Not disposal, but the pharmacy drug distribution system. Distribution. Again, all electronic on that. You put it in, you open it up, you put a thumb print or facial recognition and whatever. So all kinds of other things that can happen with this. Another one was... So you put a robot into it to deliver it. How about, they had, um, Japan, only in Japan would they think it was mobile hotels. There you go. So, you know, a mobile hotel. Yeah. There's an event. There's an event and you want to stand, and there's no hotels in that particular location. You just, you get a fleet of those. You stand them up in that particular location and you've just got your, you know, the particular hotel chain is now available to you in that particular area. Burning Man. Yes. We could do it at Burning Man. At our age, we probably would need the Burning Man hotel. I'm not going to go to Burning Man. No. I mean, that, but there's... Yeah. So anyway, you know, there's just so many things beyond transportation that I think these vehicles could do. Yeah. Now, how innovative are we going to be as a state or city to be a leader in this? Yeah. And I, you know, I think it's great that they're, the city and county, you know, has always, well, I don't know if always, certainly as far back as I can remember, has always had an award-winning bus service. Right. One of the best. Right. In the United States. That's one thing that we've done well. Yes. There you go. But the, what this would give us is the opportunity of transform our bus system. Yes. From what we think of it today. And yes, you know, it's, we go provide a lot of good service to a lot of areas. But it's all internal combustion on that, some electrical as well. Right. But this would allow us to put into place an intelligent, you know, an intelligent base. An intelligent, right. Yeah. Stuck to the route, not necessarily stuck to the route. And yes, where it could be, use the intelligence that it has within it to change all the, continuing to update routes of where I need to go and have perhaps larger buses to then feed smaller and, you know, some of that we, you know, we have to do today because we can only, you know, hire so many bus drivers. Well, bus drivers, they're looking for bus drivers now. There's a shortage for that. But you know, you think you could go and, these are going to small communities. They're expensive. These are going to small communities. They could drive down small streets. They're not noisy. 24 by 7, 365. Yeah. They don't have to worry about, where did they have to unionize the van? But I mean, a unionized van. But other things as well, they sort of have different, you know, based upon, well, would have different routes based upon the request. Who's in the, who's in the van? Yeah. Or who needs to be picked up. Those kinds of things. So they're, you know, a quasi cab. So, you know, where, where does the handy van get in there? So you're just reading my mind. Something like that. So the handy van, you know, there's a shortage of handy vans. Yes. Right. There's a shortage of handy vans. The handy van drivers. But we, this could be used to take seniors to their doctor's appointments. Wait a minute. The doctor could come there. Could take the driver there? You could have, you could have a mobile doctor's office. Depending on. There you go. For my, for my general practitioner. Your GP. Or your, yeah. Because you're usually sitting, it's a bed you're sitting there, sitting in there with that, with that individual. You're, you're optometrists or could be in that too. I mean, boy, there'll be no cars and these little vehicles will be running all over the place and we'll just be, they'll be. Yeah. You know, at some point, it's going to go back to the, what the Jetsons where they'll be flying around our town in. Well, 2020, we see, we start seeing these in California. So 2025 by 2030, I think it'll be, it'll be good to say it'll be commonplace, I think. Yeah. I wonder what these puppies are going to call. That's a good question. You know, there's not much, there's not much to them though. If you look at them, they're a shell, it's what you do with the interior. Yeah. That would probably be the, the shell itself won't be that much. What are the accruements inside? Yeah. What do you need for that? Yeah. What are you using it for? But food truck, I just think, you know, what a great food truck this would be. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Rick's and Gordo's hamburger shack. Whatever it is, you're right. And we pull up in one of these things. Yeah. You know, it'd be awesome. Our food would be terrible, but the truck would be great. That would be our problem. Yeah. Yeah. The truck might, you know, cook better food than we do. Yeah, I know. I get my son in a lot of do all the cooking because he's a far better cook than I am. But I mean, it's just, I mean, it's just this whole concept now of how we are relinquishing our human control. Yeah. To technology. And how, how are, how are we, are we getting more comfortable with that? Yeah. And I think, certainly with, you know, I do like to drive. Yeah. But, you know, I think. What if one of these cuts you off? What am I going to do? I know. You know. You can yell at it. Yeah. But it was probably my fault. Yeah. Probably your fault anyway. But you know, I think that it would be nicer, you know, to move on to being a passenger in the vehicle and having a conversation with the people that are in the vehicle. That's not going to happen. No, why? Because everybody going to be looking down at their mobile phone. They're going to be like this. Okay. Oh, you talk to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what, you know, what about the first hack? First time someone hacks. Oh, jeez. Hacks one of these. Oh, yeah. That won't be good. That won't. Yeah. They got to be really, they got to be hack proof. They got to be hack proof. So, you know, it has, it has some uniqueness. Anyway, I got one last photo I want to pop up there. This was an actual picture that was taken at the consumer, no, well, that's one from the consumer electronic show. So there's one where it's an office, this one here. So this one here, but that was at the, the consumer electronic show. And that was one of the, one of the samples they had of this. I wonder if they're going to have this at the Detroit Auto Show. Well, that's next week. And I, yeah, I know that, or I guess I shouldn't say I know, but it would be my, my perception that with the announcement from Toyota, with the request and essentially the announcement from GM. Yeah. In November that, they think they're going to be ready in, in 2019 for, you know, self-driving. So will this, I would think that, yeah, they're, they've got to have something at the Detroit Auto Show. Yeah. I would, I would hope so. Well, you're not going to believe it. We've burned through the entire show. That is. As, as like I said, this thing goes fast when Hibachi talks, the world listens. Sometimes. So, I want to thank all of you for joining us today. Rick's the fundmeister here and our talk on, our talk on the e-palette electronic vehicles and state legislature, late tours. Are you, if you're watching this show, don't put a ban, don't ban them. Please. Don't have to build a ban. Please. And. Driverless cars. Yeah. And city and county embrace it because you can be a leadership on this for our transportation. Don't stop the rail at middle street and use these. Anyway Gordo, the techs car. Another fun, Thrilled episode of Hibachi Talk. We'll see you next week. You'll be with me next week. If you say. Oh you're gonna be with me next. See you, like we say at the end of your show. You remember this? One. Two. Three. How are you doing? .