The United States is a vast and expansive country that’s become utterly dependent on its transportation infrastructure, including its roads, its railways and its flight paths. Its transport networks can be thought of as the oil that keeps the engine – the economy – of the country ticking over, ensuring that factories are kept supplied, shops are remain stocked with food, and that people can make their way to work or to school.

But as dependent as we are on these transport networks, there’s no getting away from the fact that they’re terribly inefficient. The US consumes an incredible amount of fuel, 22% of the world’s oil output during 2010 and 2011. Transportation certainly isn’t cheap either, and not only that but it pollutes the environment too. And it’s far from reliable either – just look at the traffic jams in our cities, and the number of trains, buses and flights that are constantly delayed.

Modern transport networks are far from perfect, but thanks to the rise of the Industrial Internet, they’re now on the verge of undergoing a radical transformation that should will see them become more efficient than ever before.

Big Data Paves The Way 

The key to modernizing our transport systems comes in the shape of advanced sensors that’ll be able to monitor vehicle operations and transmit vast streams of data to computers armed with sophisticated analysis programs. Given this new intelligence, human controllers – drivers, pilots, fleet managers, engineers and others – will be able to make more informed decisions that can help travel to become more efficient, faster and cheaper.

One of the most obvious advantages will be the savings in fuel. According to GE, the transportation sector consumes 27% of the world’s energy. The biggest culprits are heavy fleets, such as trains, trucks and aircraft, that consume about half of that total.

How will the Industrial Internet help to reduce this? Simple. By monitoring the moving parts of each vehicle – engines, motors, turbines, wheels, compressors and so on – we’ll be able to ensure they’re running at maximum efficiency and therefore consuming only the minimum amount of energy they need. In a similar fashion, we’ll also be able to reduce maintenance costs through more advanced diagnostics and predictive analytics. This will lead to a reduction in the number of breakdowns, less accidents and eventually help us to design safer, more efficient vehicles.

Fleet managers will be able to better manage their armies of planes, trains and automobiles thanks to intelligent scheduling software that provides them a real-time overview of their operations. GPS and other systems will be able to track vehicles in transit, while operators will be able to better manage their schedules and find alternative routes in the event of any unanticipated problems.

These systems would bring huge benefits to the aviation industry too. Globally, airlines spent $207 billion on fuel in 2012, according to the International Air Transport Association. By transforming airlines into intelligent machines, analysts would be able to crunch the data they collect to help guide engineers in designing more efficient planes, while flight plans could be refined to save even more fuel. The aviation industry estimates that this alone could help it to save more than $10 billion a year in fuel costs.

Ground crews would also become more efficient too, as an intelligent jet would be able to identify parts that require replacement, whilst providing an inventory number so they can ensure that they have the necessary parts in stock. If a certain component was out of stock, this could be ordered automatically by the plane itself, delivered to the airport by the time it lands.

Transportation is just one of many sectors set to be transformed by the Industrial Internet. Power generation, energy distribution, industrial processes, the oil and gas industries will all see similar benefits, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

It’s easy to become complacent about these things, but we waste a criminal amount of energy each year that future generations will never have the opportunity to use. Most of our energy is non-renewable, and if we’re going to make the most of it, we need to start using it more efficiently, and we need to start doing that now.