Fiction or Reality

August

16 August 2024

Carbon emissions are the focus of most sustainability strategies and as we dive deeper into our ESG initiative, CREcycle, we have come across innovative projects to achieve net-zero. Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT), at the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles, is targeting net-zero emissions by 2030, by way of automating some of the facility’s operations.

Chief Executive of the LBCT, Anthony Otto, said in a statement:

“While climate change poses a significant threat to the movement of goods worldwide, it also presents an opportunity. At LBCT, we’ve clearly demonstrated that through the adoption of green-energy heavy equipment and operations it is possible to dramatically increase our cargo-handling capacity while simultaneously reducing emissions.”

This heavy equipment includes electric powered dual hoist cranes, and battery powered container ground movers, which have helped LBCT reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 80%.

Automated electric trucks transport shipping container at the Long Beach Container Terminal in Long Beach, California, U.S., February 9, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake

As it happens, similar autonomous vehicles (driverless container movers) are used at Port Botany in Sydney and Fisherman’s Island in Brisbane.

Our initial thoughts turned to the 2017 movie Logan. In one of the scenes, we see autonomous trucks hauling containers up and down the freeway. It makes us ask the question – if autonomous vehicles can move containers around a port why can’t autonomous vehicles move containers on major freeways, highways or railway lines? No doubt there are logical reasons. But it makes us wonder.

It goes to show that one can take tech-driven concepts and turn them into reality. Inspiration from the past can produce innovation that makes a difference to the future. Was Minority Report the precursor or inspiration for augmented reality?