Vehicle routing is one of the most well-understood, extensively studied problems in both history and academia—it's been studied by academics since the early 1800s. Yet 200 years later, optimal efficiency remains just out of reach. And given the enormous increase in pressure for consumer expectations in recent years, that remaining "last mile" of vehicle routing  efficiency could, on a global scale, make a huge difference to a huge number of people.

In this episode, we're joined by Matthias Winkenbach, Director of Research at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. Matthias is an expert in urban logistics, last-mile delivery, and vehicle routing, and he has just launched a new lab, the MIT Intelligent Logistics Systems Lab, that will use AI and machine-learning techniques to tackle today's vehicle routing challenges—and that could make a major impact on vehicle routing solutions where traditional methods and algorithms have come up just short.

intelligent.mit.edu

Host & Executive Producer: Benjy Kantor