Tesla In the News: Originally published in Trajectory Magazine on January 25, 2019
By Damon Brady, Sr. Director, Product Development and Programs, BAE Systems; John Steed, Director, Geospatial Services, Tesla Government; and Anthony Sanchez, Technical Director, Veritone
The exponential growth of sensors, geospatially relevant data, and advanced analytics has created increased opportunities for geospatial analysis and is quickly leveling the asymmetric GEOINT leadership advantages previously owned by few. Not since the transition from film to digital imagery has the geospatial analysis profession experienced such a rapid transformation, and the new “digital universe” of geospatially relevant data continues to expand, incorporating and inspiring new technologies.
The statistics are impressive: According to 2017 market reports from Tauri Group, Earth observation satellite count is growing at a five-year Compound Aggregate Growth Rate of 47 percent and by 2025 we will see more than 750 new “eyes in the sky” providing imagery, videos, and multiple other types of data for analysts to consume. Similarly, the commercial drone population (excluding military and personal drones) is expected to grow at least 50 percent to more than 800,000 in the same timeframe, according to BI Intelligence reports. When combined with the ubiquitous proliferation of Internet of Things sensors, Forbes predicts our digital universe could expand to more than 163 zetabytes by 2025. Already, there is so much information available that significant amounts of data cannot be processed in the traditional processing, exploitation, and dissemination workflows, resulting in potential loss of information dominance and the inability to extract new insights and value…
