Migration and chaos in big cities. Here is the solution .
By: Venture Vane
Tags: Mobility Solutions, Autonomous Cars, Smart Cities, Market Trends, Mobility As A Service

The digital economy and interconnectivity of users, combined with new communication systems have generated a great opportunity in shared economies, including car services.

What this opportunity represents is an important key to the experience of those who value transportation and security without incurring in elevated marginal costs.

Also it represents a benefit for new MAAS (mobility as a service) companies that are exploiting this market niche, which is growing exponentially, principally in big cities with a high-density population.

This industry will be driven by the constant improvements in the automation and technological generation processes on vehicles.

These social, economic and environmental benefits permeate the potential of mobility as a service because they will grow significantly over the next few years, so we can go through a new breakeven.

Big cities: Critical Status

Two of the predominant factors in the problem of big cities are migration and the lack of investment in infrastructure.

The increase in a prolonged stay in large cities is estimated to continue rising; even the UN estimates that by 2030 more than 60% of the population from developed countries will migrate to urban areas, which are currently exceeded by both: population and infrastructure.

This crucial problem could not be solved just with correct public policies, but with collective actions, where the efforts of the private, government and civil society should come together to make this happen for their joint benefit.

Paradigm shift in car use

The paradigm shift of car use

It is estimated that the use of cars takes on average 5% of our days, however, the other 95% of the time is inactive. The new platforms for the use of mobility as a service allow maximizing the utility of the service of use for individual cars.

Large traditional companies, as well as technology developers, will make synergies so that they can use test fleets and increase subscription-based ownership to meet the needs of these conscious and connected customers that are waiting for a new vehicle, instead of selling more individual cars.

By combining new mobility services with a classic sales channel (which is crucial for short-term growth), they can offer customers what they want: total flexibility.

Software developers should seek to offer additional digital services, such as a virtual concierge/assistant, parking, cargo, and fuel, to create new sources of income. OEMs could also build new and significant sources of benefits by monetizing the sensor and user data, by combining their technology with external data sources, they can construct strategical bridges to third parties, such as travel companies have done it.

No OEM, even the largest and most prepared one, will have the strength to compete and win the whole niche market by itself. That is why synergies and building new landscapes is the first step to prepare the market for new mobility solutions so early adopters can buy these services.

The diversity of companies that are competing in the market has increased significantly, for example, Daimler´s Car2Go is considered one of the largest auto-sharing companies in the world. On the other hand, we have the scheme of Moia, a Volkswagen company that is innovating in on-demand technology, with transportation services such as trucks that are 100% electric. This service system is working in Hamburg.

The automotive sector is beginning to reinvent itself and suggests that the main actors are already anticipating significant changes in the value chain. Examples of this: General Motors plans to deploy self-directed electric cars in test fleets in association with its shared-travel subsidiary, Lyft; and Delphi recently announced an agreement to acquire nuTonomy.

Seen from a practical point, little by little, we will migrate to shared ownership models (car-sharing) or directly to on-demand use, in which we will no longer buy a car, but a certain amount of kilometers to travel or move through this chaotic cities. In other words, it would be something similar to what happens in the music industry: we practically no longer buy physical support, but the possibility of listening to our favorite songs at all times.

The paradigm of transportation will change in the next years, it will be determined according to Deloitte in a ´´global way´´ and will be subjected to change of global demand and market adoption. The actual systems may be adapted to improve the experiences of users that are looking up for efficient and better alternatives in mobility.

Therefore, business leaders must know the trends of this industry to offer users the best-integrated platforms and be ready to prepare their organizations to be able to operate in different future scenarios, with different customer segmentation and alternative technologies integrated for mobility services.

-Vanessa Bello

-Annie Falomir