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Another driver for fewer car sales: More ride-sharing and taxi (Uber) services obviating the need to purchase individual vehicles which see sub-5% utilization.
by beambot 11y ago
Another driver for fewer car sales: More ride-sharing and taxi (Uber) services obviating the need to purchase individual vehicles which see sub-5% utilization.
This is good for the environment too.... IIRC, the embodied cost to fabricate a vehicle represents something like 30% of its net carbon cost. This is pretty significant when you consider the very low utilization rate for a capital asset.
- brc 11y agoThis factor is often overstated - for a few reasons. Passenger miles are likely to go up, if anything, even if because more vacant miles are being driven to collect people, and also because making a service cheaper leads to higher consumption of that service. Passenger miles are what causes car sales - cars wear out. For cars which produce revenue then there comes a point where it's more economical to purchase a new one than to attend to medium-difficulty repairs. So I'm not convinced ride sharing or automated vehicles will lead to fewer cars sold. If anything I would say it has the potential to increase the number of cars sold.
- eru 11y agoWe will also see cars that last longer, since the initial capital investment into reliability will be recouped over more time driven. I wonder whether machine driving will lead to less wear and tear on cars.