Transportation apps are changing and evolving. Most of us have heard of mobile technologies for Uber and Lyft. Car-sharing apps such as Zipcar are becoming a common solution to transportation needs. Apps providing information on train, bus, and plane schedules, and how they can be coordinated have become a normal expectation that is widely available and utilized over the past decade. Currently, some companies are beginning to provide mobile applications for various unique modes of transportation. Some examples of this are “Limebike” and “Bird“. Lime is available in major cities worldwide, In Canada, it is available in Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Victoria. They promote carbon-free modes of transportation such as electric scooters and bikes. The app has mixed reviews as it seems to have some challenges with its consistency. I am curious to see how apps in these areas of transportation will evolve, improve, and mitigate transportation issues in major cities.
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I can’t say I’ve ever used these types of technologies but I see their value and appreciate their normalization of shared but still personalized transportation solutions. It is obvious that this is all leading to less ownership of cars and even bikes. Most personally owned transportation resources (personal cars, bikes, scooters) sit dormant the majority of the time and take up space and depreciating in value regardless of usage patterns. There are companies that will soon combine the three technologies of autonomous driving, ride sharing and transportation needs. GM announced a while ago (2017) that it would create a fleet of self driving taxis but this has yet to come to fruition. Another company Waymo is onboard as well but there appear to be some struggles along the way. The programming seems to be the barrier more than the willingness at this point with nobody wanting to make any mistakes.
Michael Liedtke, Associated Press,. (2020, December 17). GM to Put Driverless Taxis on the Streets of San Francisco. AARP. https://www.aarp.org/auto/trends-lifestyle/info-2020/gm-tests-self-driving-taxis-in-san-francisco.html
Duberstein, B. (2021, May 26). Is Waymo a Bust? The Motley Fool. https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/05/26/is-waymo-a-bust/
You make some valid points Ryan! Thank you for furthering the discussion on this topic with some things that I had not come across yet, in particular, driverless taxis. It is interesting that the lack of confidence in the programming is delaying things. I wonder how long it will take for the confidence of passengers to utilize these automated transportation services once they become more common? I suppose some people were likely hesitant to jump aboard a commercial flight when they were starting up as well.