Had a message exchange with a former cow-orker Friday. He's a GIS implementation specialist, and has been doing increasingly large data integration projects and model development. Knowing highway design was my bread and butter 10 years ago, he forwarded this to me:
Just sat in on department meeting. <Company Name> is in talks with several AI companies that are doing full roadway CAD design using AI. Claiming once they receive the lidar data, it only takes about two hours to produce a 3D model of the roadway / survey area. No way any humans can touch that.
Now we're talking existing conditions model here I assume, and it would still require some manual input or checking to define existing centerlines and right of way, but this takes shit to a whole other level.
When I retired 10 years ago, lidar surveying/data acquisition was just coming into prominence. It is now the standard, and it's looking like real time model integration is becoming the norm. Fascinating from an engineering perspective, but horrible from a human capital perspective.
Circa 1960, one engineer and 3 or 4 draftsmen was the norm in design. Circa 1995 with implementation of CAD, it was basically 1 to 1. When I retired it was 4 engineers to 1 technician. Sounds like now you just need one talented idiot savant. Laws will still require engineers in responsible charge if life/safety/health matters are in play, but how much longer will this persist?
Interesting times...
Had a message exchange with a former cow-orker Friday. He's a GIS implementation specialist, and has been doing increasingly large data integration projects and model development. Knowing highway design was my bread and butter 10 years ago, he forwarded this to me:
>Just sat in on department meeting. <Company Name> is in talks with several AI companies that are doing full roadway CAD design using AI. Claiming once they receive the lidar data, it only takes about two hours to produce a 3D model of the roadway / survey area. No way any humans can touch that.
Now we're talking existing conditions model here *I assume*, and it would still require some manual input or checking to define existing centerlines and right of way, but this takes shit to a whole other level.
When I retired 10 years ago, lidar surveying/data acquisition was just coming into prominence. It is now the standard, and it's looking like real time model integration is becoming the norm. Fascinating from an engineering perspective, but horrible from a human capital perspective.
Circa 1960, one engineer and 3 or 4 draftsmen was the norm in design. Circa 1995 with implementation of CAD, it was basically 1 to 1. When I retired it was 4 engineers to 1 technician. Sounds like now you just need one talented idiot savant. Laws will still require engineers in responsible charge if life/safety/health matters are in play, but how much longer will this persist?
Interesting times...
