About a year ago my wife and I found ourselves in downtown San
Francisco at exactly 5:00 PM on a weekday after a Giants game hoping to hail a
cab to meet some friends for dinner on the other side of town. I mean, how hard
could that be? There was no shortage of yellow vehicles racing up and down the
streets but most of them seemed to be occupied with fares. After more than just
a few minutes of waving my arms and failing to find an available driver I
called the cab company.
A Broken System
I had my smartphone on me and got the number easily and spoke to the dispatcher. She asked for my address and I told her the corner I was on. “No. The address!” was her reply. The buildings around me had some numbers but I couldn’t tell which street address was showing on which street so I gave her what I thought was my location. 15 minute arrival time was the answer. We waited and with nothing better to do we watched the traffic and people around us. A strange phenomenon unfolded whereby I began to notice cars with passengers in the back driving up and dropping people off without any type of exchange of legal tender or even conversations. Mounted on the dashboard of each of these cars was a smartphone.
When I called my friends and let them know that we were
going to be late they asked if I had “Uber”. I had heard of Uber but was not
familiar with how it worked. I now know what true “game changers” and “disruptive
technologies” are. Uber.
Too Simple to Ignore
For those of you who have not used it then you are not aware
of the new taxi experience that takes away much of the hassle of using the
traditional Yellow Cabs. It knows where you are and you simply tell it where
you want to go. It contacts the nearest available drivers to make sure that
your waiting time is minimized. It tells you the estimated price. It tells you
the estimated time of arrival. It tells the driver exactly which route to take
to get there the fastest way possible. You do not have a dispatcher to deal
with who may misinterpret an address or fail to pass along important
information about your location. You can communicate directly with your driver
via text or phone call and, best of all, you pay with your credit card that is
on file and do not have to deal with any part of the transaction at the time of
drop off. You simply walk away.
Nothing Out There
What does this have to do with agri-food technology? Well as
of this writing there is no Uber of agri food. It doesn’t exist. I have heard
countless entrepreneurs talk about their products as if they are sure that they
have created the next billion dollar company that will transform the way that
farmers grow crops or processors will produce food items. It is not out there
today. And we may be a long way away from anyone actually delivering something
that truly “disrupts” or “revolutionizes”.
Facilitate Don't Complicate
The reasons for this are many. One fact remains - farming is
complex. There are many variables with which to contend and then throw in the
weather factor and it gets much more complicated. Sure there are lots of apps out
there. Imagery (drones and satellites), mapping, variable rate, crop
recordkeeping, ERP systems, irrigation management systems, yield monitors and
on and on, but no simple app to tell growers what to do and when to do them,
and then order up the resources and make it happen. That is what Uber does. I
need a ride. I get a ride. And the experience is much more pleasurable than the old way of doing things.
