Whether you regard “new mobility” as an over-hyped trend of the moment or a preview of our future, it threatens the foundation of an auto industry built on the premise that more is better.
Indeed, there are a slew of unanswered questions.
Do we really want robots driving us around? Won’t they eliminate jobs? Can anyone make money at this?
“We have to accept the fact we’re going to go down some blind alleys,” Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford said in September. “We’re going to launch some businesses that may not have acceptable returns. But that’s all part of being on this journey. If we’re not willing to do that, then we’re never going to push fast enough or hard enough.”
We’ve seen trends before that didn’t pan out. In November 2008, just before the world economy and the American housing market crashed, the Web site Jalopnik ran this headline: “Chinese Automakers Invade Main Floor of Detroit Auto Show.” Chinese manufacturers’ share of U.S. market in 2016: 0% (not counting the Buick Envision and a few Volvos).
Many of us are old enough to remember when Internet auto sales were going to put dealers out of business. Amazon, we know you’re out there, but so far this is one domain the Seattle-based “Everything Store” has tiptoed around.
Skepticism is usually healthy, but here are a few reasons we are actually on the cusp of major change, at least in big cities.
- Pain of driving: It is not heresy, even in the Motor City, to say driving is not always fun.
- Addiction: Smartphones, or their next iteration, are not going away and neither is our addiction to them.
- More free time: Many of us can be more creative, productive and less stressed when we have more choices for how to get from Point A to Point B.
- Cost factor: The cost of insurance and parking isn’t falling. Most of us already have friends or family in larger cities who have decided those costs aren’t worth it, and they don’t feel trapped not owning a car.
- Cool factor: The software needed to “teach” machines to drive, and the freedom from auto-dependency is making the auto industry “cool” far beyond the confines of mechanical engineering students. Traditional automakers are finding it easier to attract software coders and robotics engineers who five years ago headed straight to Silicon Valley. That’s a good thing for southeastern Michigan.
- It’s real: The technology is here. True the regulatory and legal systems have to work through thorny issues, but this is not a science-fiction fantasy.
Read more of the original article at Detroit Free Press.
