Mobility as a service
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is transportation that you can buy but do not have to own.
For example, you can pay an Uber car to pick you up, but you do not own that car.
Or you can pay for a city bike to travel around the city, but you do not own the bike.
In each case, you pay for the transportation.
Public buses, taxis, subways, high-speed rail, and airplanes are already forms of MaaS.
MaaS is already becoming popular around the world from the US, Europe, Japan, Korea, to China.
Examples
Examples include
- ride-sharing
- e-hailing services (matches passengers with vehicles)
- bike-sharing programs,
- and car-sharing services
- on-demand "pop-up" bus services.
- self-driving cars
Short-term impact
MaaS may decrease how many people own cars.[1] This is already the case in China, where more than half of the population do not have cars--they just do not need it.
Benefits
MaaS can decrease traffic.[2]
Self driving cars (AV)
Uber, Tesla, General Motors, Waymo, Apple, and Local Motors are building self-driving vehicles (or autonomous vehicles, AVs).[3]
Self-driving cars could take people where they wanted to go at a lower cost than a taxi or ridesharer.[1][4] It could help benefit the environment, make transportation faster, and even improve healthcare.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Taiebat; Brown; Safford; Qu; Xu (2018). "A Review on Energy, Environmental, and Sustainability Implications of Connected and Automated Vehicles". Environmental Science & Technology. 52 (20): 11449–11465. doi:10.1021/acs.est.8b00127. PMID 30192527. S2CID 52174043.
- ↑ "Car Emissions and Global Warming". Union of Concerned Scientists. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ "Uber CEO explains his company's highly ambitious goal to end car ownership in the world". Business Insider Australia. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
- ↑ Rubalcava, Alex (2015-08-26). "A Roadmap for a World Without Drivers". Alex Rubalcava. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
- ↑ "Driving Forward - What's Beyond Self-Driving Cars? | TechWeekEurope UK". TechWeekEurope UK. Retrieved 2016-02-29.