Rethinking the role of transport

The US Department of Transportation has created a top-level committee dedicated to studying the potential impact of transport automation on society, made up of top executives from automotive companies, along with academics and scholars in the field of transportation, as well as politicians, public managers and companies with an interest in the area such as Waymo, Uber, Lyft, Delphi or Apple.

The committee is led by Mary Barra, GM’s CEO -– who recently expressed many of her groundbreaking visions for automotion in this very interesting interview?—?and by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a convinced advocate of electric mobility.

The initiative, which reflects the concerns and interests of the US government in a technological development that will undoubtedly impact on just about every aspect of how we live within the next three years, and that were very much under discussion at last week’s Detroit NAIAS, which I attended. The industry is caught up in a game of musical chairs, in which alliances between manufacturers, fleet managers, technological partners and others involved are playing a key role. While some companies such as Tesla, Ford or GM seem to be focusing primarily on producing their own autonomous vehicles, others, such as Toyota, Audi and BMW, are working in collaboration with technology providers such as Mobileye, Intel or Nvidia, among others. Companies like Daimler, are working with fleet managers like Car2go or MyTaxi, or, as with Volvo and Uber, developing specific products with fleet managers. Others, like Waymo, are integrating and manufacturing more and more of their own sensors and components, as well as offering their services to companies like Fiat Chrysler.

While some players continue to insist on a business model that will see gasoline and diesel vehicles replaced with electric cars based on private ownership, which is only going to make the current problems worse, others seem to understand that we need a different approach, one in which mobility is seen as a service, with much more rational use of vehicles provided by fleets, as opposed to privately owned vehicles that are only used for 3% of their life. Private ownership of autonomous vehicles makes no economic sense and could well see more traffic as they circulate empty or in search of parking spaces.

Meanwhile, the old industry continues to play out its death throws: In the United States, Volkswagen has pleaded guilty and will pay a fine of $4.3 to the federal government, and still faces further costs to vehicle owners. The criminal charges that the engineering director and compliance officer face are the result of the industry ignoring its role in the most important problem we face today, climate change, by continuing to make polluting engines.

The automotive industry is still in denial, resisting inevitable change and still largely focused on the same old product lines, delaying the transition toward clean technologies that are already available, and which only require investment on a scale necessary to make them a reality at a mass level. If the industry does not reinvent itself in time, it will face the same fate as the tobacco industry.

As long as things continue along the same lines as always, and the automobile industry carries on making engines that poison us, the last thing we want to hear from it is nonsense about corporate social responsibility or ethics.

(En espa?ol, aquí)