CAR-AS-A-SERVICE
taxis would cover 75 percent of miles,
based on pure economic calculi.
Just as is the case with autonomous
vehicles, “the way that most people
will first encounter an electric vehicle
[won’t be a result of] buying one for
themselves. These vehicles are [going
to be] rapidly deployed mostly as
electric taxis,” explains Ramez Naam.
And big players are fast jumping on the
bandwagon. For one, Apple recently
hired Tesla’s VP of Engineering,
Michael Schwekutsch, who now leads
the industry in electric powertrain
development. A bold move, this likely
indicates Apple’s intentions to wholly
integrate EVs into the tech giant’s
somewhat secret autonomous
vehicle fleet.
Just last year, Apple’s cars drove in
autonomous mode for 80,000 miles,
while drivers took back control of the
vehicle only every 1.1 miles driven, on
average. Increasingly competitive, this
driver intervention rate now stands
nearly neck and neck with Mercedes-
Benz’s human intervention rate of 1.5
miles, and Toyota’s somewhat higher
reported average of 2.5 miles.
Yet another competitor, GM Cruise
covered 450,000 miles in the U.S. last
year with its cutting-edge fleet of
third-generation all-electric Chevrolet
Bolt vehicles. The company currently
operates Cruise Anywhere, an
employee-only ride-hailing service in
San Francisco and has even partnered
with DoorDash to leverage its vehicles
for food delivery in the future.
One of the more salient figures in
today’s EV surge, Tesla’s Elon Musk
announced the company’s aspiration
to release a fully autonomous robo taxi
fleet next.
And one of the earliest players, Alphabet
subsidiary Waymo rises far above its
competitors in terms of miles driven
and low human intervention rates.
Waymo’s 600 vehicles on the road
have driven over 10 million miles in
the U.S., not to mention Waymo’s
additional eight million simulated
miles driven each day. And as of
current rates, Waymo vehicles require
manual intervention only once every
11,000 miles, vastly surpassing the
competition.
Since its launch in December
2018, the Waymo One service has
transported over 1,000 pre-vetted
riders in the Phoenix area. Earlier this
year, Waymo additionally announced
a strategic partnership with Jaguar
Land Rover to release the I-Pace, a
fully electric autonomous SUV. In a
massive joint effort, the companies
aim to release 20,000 vehicles in 2020.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As electric vehicles improve in
performance and witness a drop in
overall operating costs, forwardthinking
individuals, companies, and
investors are rapidly transitioning to
all-electric transport.
Battery technologies underpinning
tomorrow’s EVs are witnessing
explosions in efficiency,
decimating prices and minimizing
the environmental costs of
contemporary transit.
As 5G and next-generation cellular
networks catalyze the growth of
driverless EV fleets, partnerships
between EV manufacturers,
autonomous driving companies,
and ride-sharing services will grow
increasingly vital.
Plummeting prices and increased
convenience will soon tip the favor
towards electric car-as-a-service
options, and private ownership of
internal combustion engine cars
will become a thing of the past. +
*Content originally appeared on www.diamandis.com
Peter Diamandis is the Founder &
Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE
Foundation, which leads the world in
designing and operating large-scale
incentive competitions. He is also
the Executive Founder of Singularity
University, a graduate-level Silicon
Valley institution that counsels the
world's leaders on exponentially growing
technologies.
As an entrepreneur, Diamandis has started
over 20 companies in the areas of longevity,
space, venture capital and education. He
is also co-Founder BOLD Capital Partners,
a venture fund with $250M investing in
exponential technologies.
Diamandis is a New York Times Bestselling
author of two books: Abundance –
The Future Is Better Than You Think and
BOLD – How to go Big, Create Wealth &
Impact the World.
Diamandis.com
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