Skip to main content

New car sharing economy disrupts automotive industry says ABI

Driverless cars are disrupting the automotive industry and supply chain, propelling car sharing forward as the ultimate, mainstream transportation mode. This new car sharing economy is already well in motion, and with it continuing to ramp up, ABI Research, the leader in transformative technology innovation market intelligence, forecasts that 400 million people will rely on robotic car sharing by 2030. "The new car sharing economy happens in three phases: street rental service, ride sharing service, and
March 15, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Driverless cars are disrupting the automotive industry and supply chain, propelling car sharing forward as the ultimate, mainstream transportation mode. This new car sharing economy is already well in motion, and with it continuing to ramp up, 5725 ABI Research, the leader in transformative technology innovation market intelligence, forecasts that 400 million people will rely on robotic car sharing by 2030.

"The new car sharing economy happens in three phases: street rental service, ride sharing service, and robotic service," says Dominique Bonte, managing director and vice president at ABI Research. "The automotive industry is in the process of merging phases one and two, with robotic service to become the ultimate form of transportation for its availability, convenience, and affordability."

According to Bonte, car sharing is successful because the increased efficiency through higher vehicle utilisation rates drives down costs, which results in more affordable transportation.

The new car sharing economy is a classic example of crowdsourcing, and as such is driving many GenY supporters. The principal benefits extend beyond the collaboration aspect, though, and include the ability to tap into and monetise personally owned assets and real-time matching of supply and demand.

While matching supply and demand was previously much harder, the new car sharing model is able to increase car capacity, when required, through dynamically optimising pricing. For instance, 8336 Uber's surge pricing system significantly increases rates during peak times to increase driver incentive and ultimately place more cars on the road to improve availability. Once Uber achieves its goal, it lowers the rates back down to their standard level.

In all, successive generations of car sharing will progressively impact and disrupt markets and verticals, such as private transportation, public transportation, and ultimately the entire automotive industry. "Once the new car sharing economy reaches its final frontier, robotic car services will transform the industry, resulting in decreased car ownership, blurred lines between public and private transportation, enhanced social mobility, new infotainment paradigms, and an overall consolidation of the automotive industry," concludes Bonte.

Related Content

  • November 23, 2017
    Autumn budget: EV charging infrastructure fund and higher tax rates for diesel vehicles
    Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has announced a £400m ($532m) charging infrastructure fund for electric vehicles (EVs), an extra £100m ($133m) investment in Plug-In-Car Grant, and a £40m ($53m) in charging R&D in the UK’s Autumn Budget 2017. He added that laws need to be clarified so that motorists who charge their EVs at work will not face a benefit-in-kind charge from next year.
  • February 20, 2014
    Are Detroit OEMs heading towards extinction if Apple acquires Tesla?
    Analyst comment from Frost & Sullivan indicates that the business consulting firm believes that Detroit OEMs are in trouble if Apple acquires Tesla and thinks that the rumours surrounding this potential acquisition have some fire behind them. According to automotive and transportation team leader Paraná Tharthiharan: "Apple has an arm that researches automated driving technology and Tesla is also interested in automated driving. Hence, the speculations carry more weight than mere rumours, as if about cel
  • February 20, 2019
    MaaS Market London conference attracts global experts
    A plethora of global mobility experts is heading for ITS International’s 2019 MaaS Market Conference, reflecting the increasing pace of Mobility as a Service deployment. Colin Sowman reports Mobility as a Service (MaaS) cannot exist without the digitisation of transport services - and digitisation is without doubt the biggest challenge the transport sector has ever faced. It will create more changes over the next five to 10 years than the transport sector has seen in the past 100 - and there will be winn
  • June 20, 2016
    Do buses need subsidies in congestion charging areas
    David Crawford takes a look at the debate surrounding bus subsidies. Subsidies for public transport are a well-known and frequently-used policy tool directed at reducing the high environmental and social costs of peak-period traffic congestion. But at the end of last year the Swedish Centre for Transport Studies published a working paper entitled ‘Should buses still be subsidised in Stockholm?’ This concluded that the subsidy levels currently being applied in Stockholm could be nearly halved by setting bus