[msb-alumni] Why you should care about this 'new mobility'?
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 16:07:40 -0500
BlankWhy you should care about this 'new mobility'? Greg Gardner , Detroit Free
Press
It's easy to understand why automakers, suppliers and their employees are
investing billions in acquisitions, partnering with ride-hailing services
and'hiring software coders and robotics engineers. They've seen the devastation
wrought in such industries as media, computer and cell phone hardware, and
retailing when large companies failed to anticipate early enough, and respond
fast enough, to disruptive change. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are at stake.
Less clear might be why the average consumer should care. No one is threatening
to restrict our ability to buy or lease whatever vehicle we want.
Here are a few reasons to consider:
• Safety:
While the technology for full, or Level 5, autonomy is still in development,
the
potential to reduce the more than 30,000 annual traffic fatalities in the U.S.
is serious. About 94% of those deaths happen in accidents involving some type
of
human error. A 2015 McKinsey & Co. study estimated 90% of U.S. traffic deaths
could be prevented through semi- and fully-autonomous systems by 2030, possibly
saving $190 billion a year in health care costs.
• New freedom for disabled
Waymo, formerly Google's self-driving car project, last month
highlighted'Steve'Mahan, a former director of the Santa Clara Valley Blind
Center. He rode for the first time on public streets in the car in Austin,
Texas, October 2015. Mahan could become a spokesman for Waymo as it tries to
sell vehicles to ride-hailing fleets or other customers. "It is like driving
with a very good driver," Mahan said. "If you close your eyes when you're
riding
with somebody, you get a sense of whether this is a good driver or whether
they're not. These self-driving cars drive like a very good driver."
Diagnosed as legally blind in 2004, Mahan recalled the pain of being told he
could no longer drive the family car. "There are millions of people like me and
for them this is a promise of hope and independence," he said.
• Quality of life for the elderly
All of us fortunate to live into our 80s or 90s likely will face the point at
which driving as we've known it will be restricted or denied to us. Many baby
boomers have experienced this while taking care of older parents.
Among the earliest customers, other than ride-hailing fleets, likely will be
owners of retirement or assisted living centers. In Japan, where 25% of the
population is over 65 (compared to 15% in the U.S. and 8% worldwide), about 25%
of those involved in fatal traffic accidents are over 65, too. The government
has committed about 2 billion yen ($16.3 million) a year for the
three-dimension
maps and other infrastructure improvements so that autonomous vehicles will be
an integral part of transporting
millions of visitors and athletes leading up to the 2020 Summer Olympics in
Tokyo.
• Reduce congestion
Who hasn't dreamed of taking a helicopter for that cross-town meeting or
doctor's appointment? Already services such as Uber or Lyft are delivering the
next best thing, saving time otherwise sucked up by retrieving and re-parking
your car.
At a conference in Novi last June, one of the speakers was Sam Schwartz, a
former New York City traffic commissioner
who operates Gridlock Sam, a website advising New Yorkers and visitors about
each day's traffic challenges. He pointed out that the number'of vehicle miles
traveled in the U.S. decreased between 2003 and 2014. Some of it was caused by
the Great Recession, but Schwartz discounted that impact. "It was millennials.
They weren't driving 1% or 2%'less; they were driving 20% to 25%'fewer miles,"
Schwartz said. "That was extraordinary, and the trend was that driving and
parking was a hassle. The majority of 16-year-olds were still getting their
driver's licenses during this time, but those doing so went from somewhere in
the 90% range to somewhere in the 70s. Meanwhile, transit ridership was going
up
the whole time."
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