The AV Future
“By 2030, within 10 years of regulatory approval of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), 95 percent of U.S. passenger miles traveled will be served by on-demand autonomous electric vehicles owned by fleets, not individuals, in a new business model we call “transport-as-a-service” (TaaS). - ReThinkX, 2017
This transition will revolutionize transportation, but its impact will change many other parts of our lives. Giving up a car will affect how families create their budgets, not needing to store a car will change how houses and apartment buildings are designed. Office buildings no longer will require massive parking lots where cars inefficiently sit dormant all day and instead will be designed to maximize drop off and pick up lanes… and most visibly, the space between our buildings will be freed from the dominance of the automobile creating the opportunity for alternative uses.
The potenial annual revenue from TaaS fleets in metropolitan areas is three times the current annual revenue of Apple internationally. The goal of Uber, Lyft, Wahmo, GM and Ford is to capture these metropolitan markets. When AV's arrive en masse, they will clog our current infrastructure overnight.
We need reliable transit, and Monorail fits that demand. Monorail could be the countermeasure to negate the effects of Autonomous Vehicles during this transition.
Our transportation ecosystem is changing. Will our infrastructure, our cities, our rules and regulations be ready to make the most of it?
References:
-ReThinkX
-Samuel Schwartz
-Michael E. McGrath,
“You can’t fix a mistake by following through with it.”