Are Cars-as-a-Service the Next Big Transportation Step?

Even before the era of the motorized vehicle, people have always preferred hitching a ride to their preferred destinations. Parisians, for example, were paying to ride in horse-drawn carriages as early as 1637, which is centuries before modern taxis hit the streets at the turn of the 20th century.

By 1904, people were able to rent a car in some American cities, and, by 2010, rideshares were the rage as companies like Uber began launching mobile applications to assist passengers in finding rides on the go.

And, with driverless cars already out on the roads, it only follows that we’ll soon be able to order autonomous automobiles to take us to and from our destinations.

What is CaaS?

For most people, understanding the Car-as-a-Service (CaaS) concept shouldn’t be hard to do. Our news outlets are replete with articles about self-driving vehicles and the strides automakers are making toward getting these automobiles road-ready.

This concept is geared toward larger cities, where there are people who either don’t have a license or don’t want the expense of car ownership.

And, for those well-versed in ordering an Uber or a Lyft, arranging a ride through a CaaS app will be a simple task. The big difference, of course, is that there will be no driver.

Is the Service Available?

Vehicle sharing has been around for some time now but requires customers to have driver’s licenses and long-term contracts. Urban dwellers who don’t need or want their own car have access to reliable usage-based automobiles for a fixed monthly fee.

But, the problem is that many consumers, particularly in these bigger cities, don’t have driver’s licenses because they don’t need a car on a regular basis. But the self-driving version of the service won’t require that you have a license and will be readily available for people who don’t know how to drive.

For now, the service using autonomous vehicles is still a visionary goal, but many automobile technology experts believe the prototypes will start to hit the road as soon as 2025, a scant 13 months away.

Google, Ford, Toyota and Uber Technologies Inc. are some of the major players in the CaaS market. Many companies have already started investing in the technology that will pair self-driving vehicles with paying passengers.

By all estimations, our road will be home to many self-driving vehicles—personally owned and hired—sooner rather than later.

The Future of Transportation

According to McKinsey & Company, the future of the self-driving vehicle is bright. The global management firm estimates that by 2035, the autonomous vehicle market could create as much as $400 billion in revenue.

Today, most cars only include a basic advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) as part of their basic features, but major advancements in autonomous driving (AD) are just on the horizon.

As AD technology becomes more focused, fewer drivers will opt to continue manually driving their cars. This means that they’ll either opt to purchase their own self-driving automobile or give up the hassles of private vehicle ownership altogether by entering into CaaS agreements.

At Ficosa, we are proud of our years of development into ADAS systems and connectivity solutions that make the driving experience safer and represent the next steps toward the autonomous vehicle.