SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Barclays PLC analyst Brian Johnson predicts that U.S. automobile sales will drop 40% within the next 25 years due to disruption caused by driverless technology, and that vehicle ownership rates will be cut in half as families move to having just one car:
Large-volume automakers "would need to shrink dramatically to survive," Johnson wrote. "GM and Ford would need to reduce North American production by up to 68 percent and 58 percent, respectively."
Self-driving cars have become a frequent topic for auto executives as the technology for the vehicles emerges. The market for autonomous technology will grow to $42 billion by 2025 and self-driving cars may account for a quarter of global auto sales by 2035, according to Boston Consulting Group. By 2017, partially autonomous vehicles will become available in "large numbers," the firm said in a report in April.
Johnson's report, entitled "Disruptive Mobility," contends that the shift to cars that drive themselves will upend the auto industry. "While extreme, a historical precedent exists," Johnson wrote. "Horses once filled the many roles that cars fill today, but as the automobile came along, the population of horses dropped sharply."
"By removing the driver from the equation (the largest cost in a taxi ride), the average cost per mile to the consumer could be 44 cents for a private ride in a standard sedan and 8 cents for a shared ride in a two-seater," Johnson wrote, noting that would be "well below" the $3 to $3.50 a mile consumers now pay to ride in an UberX car or the $1 to $1.50 a mile for an UberPool vehicle.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Friday May 22 2015, @05:42AM
Around here ( Los Angeles, California area ), I have seen pretty good sized trucks outfitted with racks just to carry billboards. That is all these trucks seem to exist for. Just to carry a billboard.
For the business, its a tradeoff between getting the rights to erect a billboard onto a piece of property, or expending gasoline to keep it moving on the highway.
Somehow, I am envisioning a time when we see lots of passengerless vehicles on our roads having no purpose but to display signage.
Also, at the rate parking spaces are going for in the city, I can easily see someone instructing their car to randomly traverse the neighborhood until they summon it with their cellphone, as gasoline is cheaper than the parking fee. Especially if we have free charging stations for electric cars.
This is a system ripe to be gamed.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]