Quarter Car: The Future of Ride-hailing

By Jonny Culkin, Transport Designer at Seymourpowell.

The first decade of ride-hailing has been characterised by fundamental flaws in the business model. The need for fast-paced industry disruption has seen nascent ride-hailing operators burn through vast quantities of funding as they chase market domination. This early attitude to operations has required questionable engagement with the gig economy, an erosion of relationships within the cities in which they operate and, crucially, seen profits distinctly lacking.

Self-driving technology has long been heralded as the singular path to profitability for ride-hailing services. The potential cost saving, increased operation time and vehicle capacity that could be unlocked by removing the need for a driver would certainly go a long way towards improving the bottom line. But, as we know, it’s often not that simple.?

Any monetary saving related to the removal of a human from the driving task will be nullified by the requirement for an equally costly worker to service and clean the vehicle; a task that will need to happen on a regular basis if, as predicted, they are operating 24/7… These high-cost vehicles will need to be owned and maintained by the operators (rather than drivers) within inner-city service hubs and that will also need to be factored into any future business model.

With most of the cost saving factors involved with the switch to autonomy being absorbed by overheads that don’t exist today, any profit boosting must come through increased occupancy rates per ride.?

The initial trials of both Waymo and Cruise are highly encouraging technological steps that certainly prove that automation in this space is finally beginning to move from concept to reality. We’ve also observed the emergence of the first vehicles purely designed for this service. We love Zoox’s RoboTaxi – its approachable but purposeful design feels fit for purpose to unlock both public acceptance and intrigue.?

We are yet to see, however, a vehicle that tackles what we call the ‘Uber Pool’ problem, which generally sees passengers unwilling to share an open plan interior space with strangers.?This problem has worsened over the last two years as people’s anxiety over safety and hygiene has intensified due to the pandemic.

As self-driving technology finally begins to mature, we believe it’s time to explore interior formats and experiences for autonomous shared mobility that make better commercial sense.

Introducing QuarterCar…

QuarterCar is a fully autonomous concept vehicle, designed specifically for the ride-hailing industry, with a flexible interior that allows passengers to have their own private space while sharing a ride with other travellers. This new format promotes efficiencies within the ride-hailing industry by increasing the occupancy of each vehicle per journey, and therefore reducing the amount of journeys required to meet the same demand.

QuarterCar achieves this flexibility through retractable partitions that run down the central spines of the vehicle, allowing the segmentation of the interior into four separate sellable ‘spaces.’ Rides can be booked by individual travellers looking for an environment to help them relax or focus. The same interior can quickly adapt, using connected ‘quarters’ to create a more convivial ride for friends or couples. Or, alternatively, the whole interior can be booked by a group looking to travel and socialise in an open plan setting.

QuarterCar has the potential to change the way we perceive time spent during these journeys. Whether you choose to work or rest, the interior of these moving spaces will have to look and feel vastly different from today’s vehicles. Design influences will need to be drawn from restorative spaces rather than traditional vehicle semantics. As these types of flexible vehicles and services become ubiquitous, it’s likely we will see new players enter the mobility market, looking to create fresh mobility experiences within these adaptable platforms.

Airlines could offer a multimodal, door-to-door ticketing service – not only for business class passengers, but across all price points. Boutique hoteliers could create an extension of their brand, offering personalised tours and mobility within a city as part of an accommodation package. Co-working office brands could offer their users a parallel experience; mobile space to fill the productivity gap between the office and home.

These types of services will use advanced display technology to create personalised and contextually aware digital content and experiences, ranging from entertainment and retail through to education and gaming. For the savvy operator there will be endless opportunities to create new revenue streams and brand experiences for their captive audience.

The advent of autonomy on the road will allow designers the opportunity to reinvent the format of the car and if autonomous ride-hailing is to make up part of this sustainable transport ecosystem, then the ‘Uber Pool’ problem must be addressed.?

QuarterCar tackles this predicament through its flexible interior architecture – this kind of innovation may be the only way to revive a positive and commercially viable vision of shared, autonomous mobility.