Blasting News reported that Lyft Co-founder John Zimmer posted his vision of the future, “The Third Transportation Revolution,” to Medium. In the document, he makes several bold predictions about how the nature of transportation will change in the coming years.
Some of the predictions, like Lyft switching to autonomous cars for its service, seem almost inevitable. From the start, making a play to cut drivers out of the equation was an obvious move for all of the major ridesharing companies. Using an autonomous fleet lets them “maximize utilization.” This means that they can precisely manage every aspect of their vehicles to “provide a better value and a superior experience to customers,” and, of course, optimize their earnings in the process. The timetable he put on this milestone is five years.
Zimmer’s second prediction, that private car ownership is coming to an end in major cities, is undoubtedly more shocking. By his own admission, having a car is symbolic of American ideals like freedom and individuality. But Zimmer breaks it down as an issue of straightforward economics. Owning a car is expensive. The younger generation is financially burdened. Hence, he reasons, fewer of them will own cars and will turn to automated vehicle networks to handle their transportation needs.
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