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

  • Transport Systems Catapult boss: ‘We can’t build our way out of congestion’
    March 4, 2019
    The UK Transport Systems Catapult’s CEO Paul Campion talks to Colin Sowman about helping companies develop tomorrow’s solutions – and explains why you can never build your way to empty roads The future of mobility is going to be driven by services.” That’s the opening position of Paul Campion, CEO of the Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) – the UK government organisation set up to help boost transport-related employment and the economy. Campion was previously with IBM and describes himself as a ‘techno o
  • Development banks pledge US$175 billion for clean transport
    June 21, 2012
    Eight of the world’s largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) banks yesterday pledged to invest US$175 billion over the next 10 years to support sustainable transport in developing countries. The pledge was made at the UN Sustainable Development Conference in Rio de Janeiro (Rio+20) by the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, CAF- Development Bank of Latin America, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Islamic Developme
  • Report on the impact of recession on infrastructure funding worldwide
    May 10, 2012
    A new report examines how aggressive government belt-tightening and financial market deleveraging restrained worldwide infrastructure investments for 2012 and probably for the next five years. In the US, for instance, Infrastructure2012: Spotlight on Leadership, released by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Ernst & Young, says that constrained public budgets and a growing recognition at the local level of the importance of infrastructure, combined with lack of action at the federal level, are causing state
  • LAX bans ride-hailing pick-ups at terminals
    October 8, 2019
    Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is to ban ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft from picking up passengers outside its terminals. The draconian move, which is planned to come into force later this month, is in a bid to reduce congestion at the airport - although the Los Angeles Times reports that passengers will still be able to book rides home from a parking lot near Terminal 1, which can be reached by airport shuttle. Questions over ride-hailing’s contribution to gridlock continue to