Businesses that Will Disappear When Apple Car Arrives

[voy@ger]

The environment, traffic throughput, livability of inner cities, safety of residential neighborhoods would definitely benefit if people start using vehicles they truly need at any given time. Average car occupancy is 1.2 person, average occupancy of a ride-hail car is 1.4 passenger. Need more capacity? Your provider will have a bigger car for you available. Below: did you know that most cars are wider than their usually single occupant (the driver) is tall? That's like moving sideways while lying across a lane.

 

[pilotpat]

By the way, for plane flights (commercial), the pilot controls the plane on the ground (steering) and at take off. The computer flies and lands the plane.

Umm, no. We control the plane on the ground, we take off. The computer, under supervision by us, flies the plane to the destination. We then take control of the plane and land it. The only time the computer is used for landing the plane is when there is no way to complete the flight at the destination or alternate due to adverse weather conditions. Many times the I actually fly a good portion of the approach by hand as well.

 

[ipedro]

Why would you assume people would no longer own cars? Wouldn't the more logical progression be that people buy Apple (or other self driving cars) to replace their existing cars? Otherwise you would need to schedule a car every time you wanted to leave the house?

No, because Apple doesn’t make inexpensive anything. Electric cars with self driving features are already expensive and out of reach of the mass market. Add the expected Apple tax and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that Apple isn’t building a car to sell to the mass market but instead building a service that keeps them competitive with the likes of Google and Amazon who are absolutely going to do the same.

Apple didn’t start a TV streaming service because they thought they’d make a ton of money selling tv subscriptions. They did it to protect their position. Netflix was already using its heft to push Apple around and say “No!” to UI consistency and tvOS standards. Apple couldn’t afford to be pushed around by tv streaming services to the point that they’d compromise their user experience. So they became one themselves.

The same will be true of cars. Apple is building mobility as a service and an experience in Apple’s vision so that they dont get pushed out when Google inevitably does the same.

In closing, one just needs to look to recent generations to know that cars aren’t valued as they were when we were kids. Out of the dozen plus driving age kids in my family, only one has a license, none have a car that they drive regularly. Heck, I love driving and I haven’t owned a car in years because Uber has made it so convenient to just hop in a conveniently hailed car and get someone to drive me somewhere and not have to find parking or worry about insurance and maintenance and all those things. If I got a car now, it would be a classic that I take out every so often for the pleasure of driving, not for every day mobility.

 

[voy@ger]

Heck, I love driving and I haven’t owned a car in years because Uber has made it so convenient to just hop in a conveniently hailed car and get someone to drive me somewhere and not have to find parking or worry about insurance and maintenance and all those things. If I got a car now, it would be a classic that I take out every so often for the pleasure of driving, not for every day mobility.

I think that what I call a 'smart-mobility appliance on wheels' can do both:
1. a Next-Gen rickshaw for ride-hail purposes
2. a personal passenger vehicle with driverless as mainly a comfort feature

 

[Average Pro]

Pro: The movie "Dude, where's my car?" is never made.
Con: Same as above.