400 million people to rely on robotic car sharing by 2030, analysis shows

Image: Zipcar

Once self-driving cars hit the road, one automotive research company projects, vehicle ownership will quickly become a thing of the past.

According to an independent analysis by ABI Research, 400 million people worldwide will rely on shared self-driving cars for their mobility by 2030.

That's because once autonomous cars are ubiquitous and a proven technology, people will wonder why they would even own a car at all. Instead of shouldering the costs of parking, maintenance and insurance for a car that sits idle 90% of the day, customers will instead opt for a subscription-based car sharing platform, according to ABI Research.

“The new car sharing economy happens in three phases: street rental service, ride sharing service, and robotic service,” said 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.”

That 400-million person figure comes from "assumptions on the number of shared vehicles available and the average number of users per vehicle," an ABI Research spokesperson told Mashable.

Even just this week, we saw the beginnings of that trend when GM and Lyft announced they were going to offer inexpensive car rentals to Lyft drivers in Chicago, Illinois. Certainly, this isn't car sharing in the traditional sense. However, mobility services like Lyft will play a big role in car sharing and may some day be indistinguishable from a Zipcar business model.

Aside from the end of car ownership and human-driven cars, this prediction signals the end of two other professions: car salesman and car reviewer. As the latter, I can at least take some solace in knowing the date when my career comes to an end.

What's New

What's Rising

What's Hot