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Uber and Lyft Shared Principle: No Personal Autonomous Cars in Dense Urban Areas

posted by martyb on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the whose-car-is-it? dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://gizmodo.com/uber-and-lyft-have-a-hot-new-idea-for-screwing-over-cit-1822661060

The arrival of autonomous vehicles is an inevitability, so it makes sense that before mass adoption hits, companies like Lyft and Uber would want to band together to determine what our self-driving future will look like. Sounds pretty harmless, right?

Well, not so fast, because a new pledge by 15 big-name transportation companies seems designed to screw over city-dwellers who want to ride in their own self-driving cars. Item #10 of the Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities, co-signed yesterday by Uber, Lyft, Zipcar, and Didi Chuxing (China's largest ride-sharing service), reads as follows:

10. WE SUPPORT THAT AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES (AVS) IN DENSE URBAN AREAS SHOULD BE OPERATED ONLY IN SHARED FLEETS.

Due to the transformational potential of autonomous vehicle technology, it is critical that all AVs are part of shared fleets, well-regulated, and zero emission. Shared fleets can provide more affordable access to all, maximize public safety and emissions benefits, ensure that maintenance and software upgrades are managed by professionals, and actualize the promise of reductions in vehicles, parking, and congestion, in line with broader policy trends to reduce the use of personal cars in dense urban areas.

Translation: These companies want to make it illegal for individuals to use privately owned self-driving cars in big cities, effectively giving the signatories control of our autonomous streets.

See the Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities site for details on their principles, which are enumerated here:

  1. We plan our cities and their mobility together.
  2. We prioritize people over vehicles.
  3. We support the shared and efficient use of vehicles, lanes, curbs, and land.
  4. We engage with stakeholders.
  5. We promote equity.
  6. We lead the transition towards a zero-emission future and renewable energy.
  7. We support fair user fees across all modes.
  8. We aim for public benefits via open data.
  9. We work towards integration and seamless connectivity.
  10. We support that autonomous vehicles (AVs) in dense urban areas should be operated only in shared fleets.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:50AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:50AM (#632746)

    Huge bonus for corporations having exclusive use of publicly funded infrastructure. Imagine your taxes paying to build uber's roads.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @09:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @09:56AM (#632867)

    Now the reason for the sky high valuations of Uber and friends becomes clear. They are the new taxis, but now want our roads allocated to them.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @12:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @12:05PM (#632884)

    Huge bonus for corporations having exclusive use of publicly funded infrastructure

    L.A. County & Orange County transit agencies seek their own ride-sharing services [dailybreeze.com]

    Public transit agencies in Los Angeles and Orange counties announced [October 23, 2017] that they're seeking private-sector partners to operate new door-to-door ride-sharing programs.

    The proposed "micro-transit" programs would begin operating in selected areas this summer, offering cheaper door-to-door rides than Uber and Lyft--as low as $5 per trip[1] with free transfers to buses and rail lines.

    The service would be designed to boost ridership and to keep up with private-sector technology innovations, said Joshua Schank, chief innovation officer at Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or LA Metro.
    [...]
    Similar to Lyft and Uber, the systems would be accessible through a cellphone app. But they won't require that the user have a credit card, and they will accommodate disabled riders.
    [...]
    The Orange County Transportation Authority's board of directors on [October 23] approved a request for proposals to seek companies to partner on its program, called OC Flex.

    The OC Flex program is an extension of OCTA's OC Bus 360--an initiative designed to modernize the system and increase ridership. So far, it's included a cellphone app that allows mobile ticketing and summer student passes.
    [...]
    The system would begin operating [July 2017] in Huntington Beach, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, and Mission Viejo with wheelchair-accessible vans.

    [1] Curently, a day pass for bus service in the OC (not including express routes) is $5; $1.50 for seniors.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]