WINNING THE WAR ON WAGES:

[Rob Carter, FedEx's chief information officer,]  is responsible for setting the technology agenda across FedEx's various operating companies, including its planes-and-trucks Express shipping service and office-and-home Ground delivery service, which operate in 220 countries. He recently told MIT Technology Review about some of FedEx's emerging technology initiatives in artificial intelligence and robotics. The investments FedEx makes in these technologies could shape the multi-trillion-dollar logistics market, affecting everything from the way people send and receive parcels to the global movement of large fleets of vehicles.

For example, someday you might be able to initiate a FedEx shipment by talking to your Amazon Echo or Google Home virtual assistant device. Carter says that FedEx has created an AI-enabled Alexa app that would eventually understand commands like "Alexa, prepare a shipment."

"You [will be able to] just talk your way through and [Alexa will] ask the right questions to make sure you've completed the work and then you can expect a truck to roll up to the front door of your office, pick up the shipments, and move them along," he explains. By eliminating the tedium of filling out forms and searching through menus, the app could streamline the shipping process and boost customer satisfaction. It is still in an early development stage.

FedEx is also researching ways it could further automate the way it transports packages. Carter says the company is working with the startup Peloton Technology, whose semi-autonomous technology electronically links trucks into small caravan groups called platoons. The system, which uses wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communication to enable the driver of a lead truck to control the gas and brakes of a truck following closely behind him, is designed to reduce wind resistance and save fuel. The technology is considered a significant step toward fully autonomous trucks, and Peloton has said it will release it in late 2017.

Carter says FedEx is also "very much interested in" completely autonomous trucking and has partnered with several automakers that specialize in that technology, including Daimler and its Freightliner truck division and Volvo. Daimler has piloted semi-autonomous trucks on highways in Nevada and Germany while Volvo recently demonstrated a fully autonomous construction truck in an underground Swedish mine. Carter says he expects to see "significant implementations" of automated vehicles in the shipping industry within 10 years, but declined to specify when FedEx might adopt semi- or fully autonomous trucks.

Tweet   @brothersjudd