Skip to main content

Global number of car sharing users to reach 650 million by 2030

Car and ride sharing is just one example of the new on-demand economy allowing real-time matching of supply and demand through connected smartphone applications. According to ABI Research, successive forms of vehicle sharing approaches represent paradigm shifts in uptake and popularity; each new generation seeing adoption rates at least an order of magnitude larger than the previous: Car sharing 1.0 - street rental service: Cars parked on the street can be located, unlocked, used, and left behind. Examples
March 12, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
RSSCar and ride sharing is just one example of the new on-demand economy allowing real-time matching of supply and demand through connected smartphone applications. According to 5725 ABI Research, successive forms of vehicle sharing approaches represent paradigm shifts in uptake and popularity; each new generation seeing adoption rates at least an order of magnitude larger than the previous:
 
Car sharing 1.0 - street rental service: Cars parked on the street can be located, unlocked, used, and left behind. Examples include 3874 Zipcar, 4190 car2go and 6452 DriveNow.
 
Car sharing 2.0 - ride sharing taxi service and carpooling: Private drivers picking up customers using their privately owned vehicles. Examples are Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, Carpooling.com and BlaBlaCar.
 
Car sharing 3.0 - robotic car service: Driverless cars which can be called remotely and used without a driver on board.
 
“While 1.0 allows sharing vehicles from a centrally managed fleet and 2.0 leverages the personal vehicles of individuals, 3.0 will combine both models—a hybrid between the old economy of official fleets and the new sharing economy, firmly rooted in the crowd sourcing paradigm. While Uber-like 2.0 services already start challenging car ownership, only the third generation of shared driverless cars will propel the ‘car as a service’ paradigm into the mainstream hereby transforming the automotive industry,” says VP and practice director Dominique Bonte.
 
In the meantime, the report says pioneering car sharing 2.0 companies like Uber are operating at the ‘edge of the law’, facing multiple regulatory, legal, social, security and safety challenges, thereby pushing reforms and paving the way for the new car sharing ecosystem of the future.
 
Uber’s surge pricing approach, adopting higher rates during peak times incentivising more Uber drivers to take to the road and guaranteeing availability, also risks being banned. It is just another example of innovation ahead of its time, using dynamic demand-response pricing as an effective transportation and traffic management instrument.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • We need to talk about AVs
    October 15, 2021
    Will driverless vehicles lead to more deaths and destroy more lives than their manual counterparts? Transport writer Colin Sowman argues that they will
  • Uber enlists MV Transportation drivers to pick up disabled passengers
    November 23, 2018
    Uber is adding drivers from a specialist company to its app in a bid to provide more wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAV) to disabled passengers in the US. MV Transportation specialises in providing on-demand transportation to people with disabilities and older passengers. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says there are not enough drivers on its platform who use WAVs. He believes the collaboration will allow riders in wheelchairs to be picked up within 15 minutes on average for trips in New York City, Bosto
  • Unlit bollard liability for UK authorities
    April 19, 2012
    A ruling by a court in Cambridge is likely to have major implications for councils and authorities across the UK after a cyclist won compensation when he collided with a bollard at night. These were placed on a cycle route to prevent vehicular access to the cycle path, which runs alongside the River Cam and is used day and night by cyclists who commute to/from Cambridge, as a safer alternative to using the busy A10.
  • Crash prevention systems improving rapidly says IIHS
    June 2, 2014
    According to its latest report, less than a year into a new Insurance |Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) ratings program for front crash prevention, auto manufacturers are making strides in adopting the most beneficial systems with automatic braking capabilities and are offering the features on a wider variety of models. Twenty-one of 24 cars and SUVs, all 2014 models unless noted, earn an advanced or higher rating in the latest round of IIHS evaluations. "We are already seeing improvements from automaker