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The Advent of Mobility as a Service and Transportation Conquest

The constant increase in the number of vehicles will saturate the cities. Many governments seeking sustainable economic and environmental solutions are searching for alternate ways to replace private ownership. The advent of on-demand taxi solutions was a giant leap in this direction. Now, the urban administrations expect shared mobility as a service as a complete overhaul of the traditional transportation system.

Private vehicle ownership is not only causing problems for regulatory institutions but the owners themselves too. Keeping a vehicle is becoming more of a bane than a blessing. Commuters are expecting a solution which saves money as well as time for them.

What is mobility as a service?

Uber and a bunch of other ride-sharing apps offer a shared environment where riders can acquire on-demand taxi. This rising concept is the beginning of an era where private vehicle ownership will be a thing of past. There is a gradual shift of riders from using private vehicles to shared ones.

The success of this business model encourages the businesspersons and metropolitan administrations around the world to scale up these services to include entire public transportation. The inclination toward public transport will pick up more pace. Consequently, the residents of major cities in the world will entirely quit private car ownership to embrace mobility on-demand.

The scaling up of services would result in a centralized operation of all modes of urban transport. Instead of disparate command and control center for various means of traveling, the administrators are preparing to offer a universal regulatory system for taxi services, subways, rapid transits, and bike-sharing. Thus, the future is not confined to car mobility as a service.

Drastic Reduction in Traffic congestion

Every vacant seat indicates the inefficient use of a vehicle with considerably greater capacity. Over 80 out of every 100 cars on average in the US metropolises have at most two riders. People tend to use private cars to travel to workplaces leaving a substantial amount of space in public vehicles. As a result, frequent traffic congestion is inevitable.

On-demand cab service only partially solves the challenge of transportation. The traffic problems still haunt the administrations. Nevertheless, some startups have begun to offer single seat instead of an entire vehicle. Via – the on-demand shuttle service – is a highly efficient model which serves as a precedent. The introduction of Via allowed many vehicle owners to quit ownership in favor of Via. The service ensures that each vehicle fills more than 80% of the seats. Thus, every vehicle in on-demand shuttle service eliminates many vehicles from roads and parking.

Reoccupying public spaces

The need for more spaces increases as the number of vehicles grows. An area that could have served as a community center or recreational facility ends up becoming a car parking facility. Unfortunately, the speed with which the public spaces are diminishing is alarming.

The primary objective of private car ownership was to ensure that people could save time. Unfortunately, the relentless increase in traffic indicates that the private ownership model is no longer a sustainable solution. Vehicle owners are spending almost the same amount of time on roads as public transport users. Thus, the city administrations will welcome any mobility as a service app which allows reduction in vehicle ownership. Surveys reveal that the passengers will voluntarily cease to keep private vehicles if an appropriate alternative is available to them.

Global warming Social responsibility

Another reason for quickly adopting shared mobility as a service is to fulfill social responsibility. Millions of vehicles running in urban areas are causing havoc to biodiversity. Apart from health hazard, pollution from vehicles is one of the major causes of climate change. The introduction of electric cars ensures a remarkable reduction in pollution. However, electric vehicles leave a carbon footprint too. However, the benefits of electric vehicles will fade out with the increase in the number of cars.

Therefore, the shared digital mobility is indispensable. Citizens are as concerned about the pollution factor of vehicles as the regulatory bodies. For the same reasons, both preexisting and new mobility services are ensuring shared on-demand commuting services.

Travel costs

Shared mobility is currently the most cost-effective solution to tackle increasing fares of ride-sharing services. Instead of a single person paying for the ride, multiple travelers occupying every seat will be able to distribute the fare. Moreover, service providers can offer various packages to frequent travelers. These packages will not only benefit the commuters but the transporters too.

The taxi on-demand service managed to bring significant relief to travelers by offering relatively far lesser taxi fare. Shared taxi services will cause an exponential decline in fares favoring the riders without affecting business profits.

Various Rides, Mutual Account

Currently, passengers can access taxi at their doorstep using a smartphone. Similar services enable them to find bike, vans and other modes of commuting. An average commuter has to maintain at least three different accounts for seeking commuting services and paying for it. Therefore, this excess of accounts disables them from effective financial management.

A mutual account for various ride services allows the commuters to have same account for rapid transits and cab services. This account enables them to keep the record of fares easily. Üstra offers a similar scheme with the assistance of Hanover administration in Germany. The travelers can pay for bike-sharing, cab, and buses with the same account. Hence, commuters experience a shared public transport environment from cycle to bus.

Onwards and Upwards

The appropriate legislation is one of the mobility as a service challenges. Fortunately, the successful implementation of shared mobility in some cities including Hanover and New York is encouraging regulators around. Analysts expect that all the metropolitan cities will introduce large-scale mobility as a service by 2030. The system will bring all the urban means of transportation under one centralized umbrella in each city.

The remarkable benefits of mobility as a service bring an unprecedented business opportunity for entrepreneurs. The investors who act today will be the leaders in transportation of tomorrow. CabStartup is as excited to make you a leader as yourself. Sign up today to start building.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Machine Intelligence Unleashes Autonomous Transportation

The current decade is not only significant for automobile manufacturer for commercializing autonomous vehicles. It also witnesses the landmark achievement of autonomy in the ride-sharing industry. Artificial intelligence laid the foundation stone to achieve these feats. Machine intelligence in transportation is a crucial component of future urban mobility.

The transportation monetization with AI will be valued at $750 billion by 2030 if it continues to grow at the current rate. Inexperienced researchers, as well as entrepreneurs, should know the steps that enable the autonomous cars to drive without human assistance.

Various components integrate to achieve a common milestone of uninterrupted mobility.

A completely autonomous vehicle is equipped with multiple sensors intended to achieve distinct tasks. The processors analyze the data from various sensors to enable smooth movement. This data integration occurs in real-time to allow a vehicle to make swift and appropriate decisions.

Computer Vision Sensors

Most of the current self-driving vehicles primarily use a single camera mounted on the windscreen. However, many auto manufacturers are introducing multiple cameras to increase visibility. The analysts believe that single camera version may work well on highways with less congestion. However, the urban downtowns and narrow pathways require far greater visibility.

Latest models of autonomous vehicles use a combination of four to six cameras covering 360° around the vehicle. Computer Vision (CV) algorithms power these cameras to detect objects ahead and around them.

The CV libraries use various machine learning techniques to detect the objects. The developers can customize the libraries to make a distinction between different objects. They need to predefine the region of interest (ROI) before algorithm undergoes supervised training.

Radar Sensors

RADAR is the current standard for assessing the distance and volume of objects around a vehicle. It uses medium and short-range radio waves which share the information of nearby objects after striking them.

The vehicles equipped with RADAR no longer require side-mirrors because any vehicle can estimate distance of other cars by using radio waves. Apart from lane changing assistance, the RADAR also enables the vehicles to maintain a safe distance, and park efficiently.

Currently, machine learning in transport management works in conjuncture with 24-GHz RADAR. However, 122 GHz technology is in the final testing phase and may soon be available by early next year. Besides, observers expect monolithic System-on-Chip technology to make way into the industry to integrate baseband functions along with RADAR.

LiDAR Sensor

While RADAR is already increasing the efficiency of self-driving vehicles, the LiDAR sensor set to completely transform them. Instead of radio waves, LiDAR uses laser light. Since the wavelength is relatively much shorter than, the system should comprise an intensely sensitive receiver apart from the transmitter. The shorter wavelength ensures greater frequency which allows the laser to penetrate the object.

This penetration assists the LiDAR system in modeling a 3D sketch of the object. High frequency also allows the system to work effectively under inclement weather conditions. In contrast, the environment significantly affects the efficiency of RADAR.

InnovizOne – one of the winners of CES Best of Innovation Awards – is a LiDAR technology equipped with the ability to detect objects as far as 250 meters from the vehicle. Owing to LiDAR technology, the device is resilient to harsh weather conditions. This gadget can track objects in real-time apart from detecting lanes. Moreover, it can also classify objects boosting the machine learning in transportation engineering.

Such inventions ensure that auto manufacturing giants will be able to reduce accidents up to a remarkable degree. The machine learning in transportation business will soon allow complete elimination of vulnerability. Since 94% of car accidents involve human error, autonomous cars will significantly bring down the percentage of crashes.

Machine Learning and Coordinate Resolution

The transport industry is one of the chief stakeholders of GPS technology. Every driver with smartphone access may find the one’s pinpoint location in the remotest regions using the GPS. It does not require internet connectivity.

Machine learning enhances GPS use by providing highly-efficient route optimization. Correct implementation enables the optimization algorithms to detect narrow streets and parking lots too. The AI in transportation ensures that the vehicle makes better route selection decisions without affecting the mobility of nearby vehicles.

Finally, the data from all the sensors, cameras and GPS capacitates the vehicle to drive without driver’s assistance. Level-two autonomy also features cruise control where the vehicle moves without interference from the driver. However, cruise control can only be enabled in certain conditions.

Challenges and Notable Breakthroughs

Although the application of machine learning in transportation fared very well, yet administrators and auto-manufacturers need to overcome a few shortcomings too.

  • The RADAR sensors with 4-GHz bandwidth for 79-GHz frequency would be the ideal case for smooth running of traffic. However, most of the countries currently allow 77-GHz frequency with 1-GHz bandwidth. Nevertheless, regulatory framework is under development with a breakthrough expected soon.
  • The improvement in LiDAR technologies is enabling the manufacturers to use the alternative option of RADAR. The logistics giant DHL announced the use of AI transportation logistics to inducing more stability to the fleet industry.
  • Up to a few years back, consumers were reluctant to using autonomous vehicles for fear of collision. However, they are rapidly gaining trust. The introduction of Waymo in Arizona is a massive development causing a remarkable enthusiasm among travelers to utilize autonomous ride-hailing service.
  • The governments around the developed world are devising a comprehensive framework for autonomous vehicle industry. Most of them already allow incorporation of self-driving vehicles in for urban mobility.
  • Although contemporary transportation systems lack a shared environment, yet upcoming times are set to witness the distributed mobility mechanism controlled from centralized locations. This will allow efficient use of vehicles and will prevent traffic congestion.

Machine intelligence in transportation is very close to achieving an autonomous urban mobility model. The rest of the tasks are only a matter of small time because most of the testing and requisite legislation has already been done.

Meanwhile, investors have an unparalleled opportunity at their disposal to become one of the pioneers of autonomous ride-sharing service. Regardless of the amount of technical understanding, you can be the industry leader too. Sign up today to get going.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Rise of Autonomous Cars and Ride Hailing Industry

The contemporary inhabitants of earth are extremely fortunate to be alive in the current age. They are able to see vehicles running on steam, petrol, gasoline and electric charge. Currently, the technology is enabling them to see the autonomous or self-driving vehicles too. The taxi dispatch solutions are successfully making rounds for over a decade now. The researchers forecast that the commercialization of autonomous cars for ride hailing services will abruptly spread in 2019.

Although legislation and regulatory framework for autonomous cars are still in the rudimentary stages, yet the technology has evolved up to the extent that it outperforms human drivers. The disruption in traditional taxi businesses caused by cab startup solutions will not end here. The advent of autonomous vehicles will further evolve and optimize the industry.

Autonomous Ride Sharing and Public Response

The consumers carry some apprehension about the ability of software to be as good or better as human drivers. The surveys by Forbes indicate that most of the participants were willing to travel in self driving cars if the service provider offers a “considerable” compensation in case of an accident. They also want large scale use of fellow citizens before they would adopt it.

However, the self-driving cars manufacturing companies are confident that they are going to win the trust of public. Waymo, an initiative of Alphabet Inc., partially launched the service last month for the residents of some counties of Arizona. The public response is overwhelming as a significant number people are willing to adopt this mean as their primary commuting choice.

The riders welcomed the Waymo ride for comfort and reasonable fares. A 3-mile trip lasting for 15 minutes costs $7.59 as reported by Reuters. This cost is almost the same as Lyft and Uber.

Another reason for manufacturer’s high expectations is the fact that the surveys conducted five years back with a similar set of questions indicated far greater level of fears surrounding the commercialization of autonomous cars. The experts believe that the substantial reduction in apprehensions follows the decline in the number of accidents of self-driving vehicles.

Stance of Ride Sharing Industry Leaders

There is a diversity of opinions among executives of on-demand taxi services, but most of them are convinced that a considerable amount of their business will involve the self-driving cars before the end of upcoming decade.

The executives at Uber believe that Uber self driving car will be on roads before the year 2019 concludes. Although they plan to acquire the self-driving cars, yet they rule out the possibility of laying-off drivers. Uber wants drivers to keep the wheel when they sense an unprecedented and unusual behavior by cars. The tablets embedded in autonomous cars enable the riders to view the surroundings as the car “views” it. This ability signals the drivers if the ride is not up to the mark.

However, the company also plans to phase out drivers in the long run once they develop efficiency beyond doubt in the automated vehicles. The number of employees will not drop because the continuously running vehicles will require more maintenance and, hence, more mechanics.

Lyft also projects to initiate the autonomous rides before midyear. The company leaders believe that the complete transformation may take up to five years. It has already collaborated with General Motors to acquire vehicles, and tech analysts put the collaboration as a landmark in the concept of autonomous car sharing.

Major Investors

While Uber and Lyft have already made a significant amount of investment, a bunch of other notable companies is also following the suit. Tesla is one of the pioneers who introduced autonomy in vehicles. Now, Tesla leaders are finalizing the autonomous ride sharing services. Since the company is manufacturing the vehicles, it is capable of rolling out and growing the autonomous taxi services faster than its competitors.

Alphabet’s vehicles have managed to win the consumer trust in the partial release. The leaders project to attain a return of five times of their investment. Ford is all set to introduce their self-driving vehicles by 2021 and wants to invest $4billion by 2023.

Nevertheless, the industry is not saturating any time sooner despite remarkable growth of investors’ interest. At the current estimation, the global investment of autonomous ride sharing is still falling short to fulfill the future consumer demand. Besides the traditional needs, there are scores of other benefits of investment in autonomous cabs. The electric vehicles will reduce the operational costs and improve the climate situation as well.

Thus, the entrepreneurs opting for self-driving cabs to put their money will be capable of growing their domain to as big as over a billion dollar inside five years.

Future Projections

Research at Allied Market Research forecasts that market of self-driving vehicles will top up to over $556 billion by 2026. Currently, the market worth stands at little over $54 billion. The increase of an astonishing 39% in a span of seven years reveals that the dominant share of vehicle industry will turn towards the autonomous vehicles. There is little doubt that the combination of autonomous cars and ride hailing technologies will revolutionize the taxi businesses. The only challenge is that of regulation.

Up to 600 Waymo One vehicles roam the roads of 25 cities. These vehicles have already covered over 100 million miles with no significant accident reported. The cautious analysts believed that the vehicles would unveil shortcomings once tested in intense traffic areas. However, Waymo rides are proving the critics wrong since the Arizona launch.

Apart from corporate giants including Tesla, Alphabet, Uber, Lyft and Ford, many small companies and startup entrepreneurs are also considering the investment. If these investors acquire robustly tested vehicles and fulfill the requisite safety measures, there is no reason for them to fail. As the trends indicate, the public trust on autonomous is bound to grow as the services will soon be launched in multiple cities of the US.

Contact us to learn more about the autonomous ride hailing industry and the potential for investment. Our expert teams will help you in developing and expanding your business.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments
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