Category:

Car Sharing

Death Spiral For Oil And Auto Industry Will Be Complete By 2030, Predicts Futurist

Futurists make predictions. That’s what they do. Sometimes they are right; sometimes they are wrong. As futurists go, Stanford economist and RetinkX founder Tony Seba has a pretty good track record. He predicted the solar energy boom at a time when prices for solar power were 10 times what they are today. His latest report predicts two things. One, he says that by 2030, 95% of people won’t own a private car, killing off the auto industry. Two, he predicts electric vehicles will devastate the global oil industry by the same date.

Death Of The Auto Industry

“By 2030, you probably won’t own a car, but you may get a free trip with your morning coffee. Transport-As-A-Service (TaaS) will use only electric vehicles and will upend two trillion dollar industries. It’s the death spiral for cars (and the oil industry), he says. “We are on the cusp of one of the fastest, deepest, most consequential disruptions of transportation in history. But there is nothing magical about it. This is driven by the economics.”

“A-EVs (autonomous electric vehicles) engaged in TaaS will make up 60 per cent of U.S vehicle stock. As fewer cars travel more miles, the number of passenger vehicles on American roads will drop from 247 million in 2020 to 44 million in 2030. Using TaaS will be four to 10 times cheaper per mile than buying a new car, and two to four times cheaper than operating an existing paid-off vehicle, by 2021.

“The cost of TaaS will be driven down by several factors, including utilization rates that are 10 times higher; electric vehicle lifetimes exceeding 500,000 miles; and far lower maintenance, energy, finance and insurance costs. The average American household will save $5,600 per year by giving up its gas powered car and traveling by autonomous, electric TaaS vehicles.”

May 11, 2017 31 comments

Elon Musk Talks About His Vision Of The Future At TED2017

written by Steve Hanley

Originally published on CleanTechnica

Robert F. Kennedy once said, “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.” Even though RFK was channeling George Bernard Shaw at the time, his words could be the perfect embodiment of the world according to Elon Musk. Last week, Musk was on hand at the TED2017 conference in Vancouver, where he sat down with Chris Anderson, the curator for TED Talks, to discuss his vision for the future of transportation and infrastructure both in America and around the world.

The Boring Company Idea

In February, Musk unexpectedly began digging a tunnel at SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles. His stated goal was to eliminate the traffic headaches involved in getting to Los Angeles International Airport. It’s five minutes away as the crow flies, but can take up to an hour during peak traffic periods.

Musk told Anderson that there is “no real limit” to the depth of his proposed tunnels. “The deepest mines are much deeper than the tallest buildings are tall, so you can alleviate any arbitrary level of open congestion with a 3D tunnel network.” Musk thinks it will be possible to create “any arbitrary number of tunnels, any number of levels” in order to reduce surface congestion on the surface.

Making Tunneling Faster And Cheaper

But first, the cost of boring tunnels must be sharply reduced. “We need to have at least a ten fold improvement in the cost per mile of tunneling,” Musk said. One way to do that is to reduce the diameter of the tunnels from 28 feet today to about 12 feet. Wider tunnels are necessary to allow emergency vehicles to operate inside tunnels today and to permit adequate ventilation for cars with internal combustion engines.

But Musk foresees his tunnels being so safe that emergency vehicles won’t need access and, of course, only electric cars will be allowed. Or at least electrically powered sleds that Musk calls “electric skates” that will move cars around underground. “But if you shrink that diameter to what we’re attempting, which is 12 feet, which is plenty to get an electric skate through, you drop the diameter by a factor of two and the cross-sectional area by a factor of four. And the tunneling cost scales with the cross sectional area, so that’s roughly a half order of magnitude right there.”

The second cost reduction would come from improving the speed of the tunneling equipment. Musk says he could do that by cranking up the power of tunnel boring machines. “If you can jack up the power to the machine substantially, I think you can get at least a factor of two, maybe a factor of four or five improvement on top of that,” he said. Even more efficiency gains can be had by boring tunnels and building the walls to reinforce them at the same time. Today, those are two separate operations.

Musk is a student of popular culture icons. Some of the Easter eggs in Tesla automobiles are based on scenes in Star Wars or the Mel Brooks spoof Space Balls. When it comes to tunneling, he says the goal is to beat Gary The Snail from the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon. “Currently he’s capable of going 14 times faster than a tunnel boring machine,” Musk said. “We want to beat Gary. He’s not a patient little fellow. That will be victory. Victory is beating the snail.”

Merging Tunnels With The Hyperloop

Anyone who viewed the most recent CGI representation of what a system of underground tunnels might look like can understand how Hyperloop technology could be merged with the tunneling concept. He told Chris Anderson that some Hyperloop technology could be used underground since the tunnels will be able to withstand five or six atmospheres. That’s more than the partial vacuum planned for inside the Hyperloop tubes. “There’s no real length limit,” to a Hyperloop route, Musk said.

Asleep At The Wheel

Switching his focus to self-driving cars and the technology that will make them possible, Musk said Tesla is “still on track for being able to go cross country from LA to NY by the end of the year, fully autonomous from a parking lot in California to a parking lot in New York, no controls touched at any point during that journey.”

In about two years, people will be able to climb behind the wheel and go to sleep if they wish. “The real trick of it is not ‘how do you make it work 99.9 percent of the time,’ because if a car crashes say one in a thousand times then you’re probably still not going to be comfortable falling asleep,” Musk said. Instead, he thinks the chance of a crash will have to be more on the order of once in 100 lifetimes before people will feel comfortable napping while the car drives itself.

Of course, if it is on an electric pallet deep underground, there would be no reason not to go to sleep. If Musk could raise the average speed of those pallets from 125 miles per hour to 250 miles per hour, a trip from New York to Chicago could be accomplished in about 4 hours in complete safety. Crossing the continent would take less than 14 hours — about what is takes now to leave home, get to the airport, change planes, get to the other side of the country, and get to your destination. That’s when the popularity of air travel with all its hassles might suffer a significant decline.

Vehicle Sharing

Musk also thinks vehicle sharing will be a significant part of transportation in the future. “Absolutely this is what will happen: so there will be a shared autonomy fleet where you buy your car, and you can an choose to use that car exclusively, you could choose to have it be used only by friends and family, only by other drivers who are rated five stars, you can choose to share it some times but not other times. That’s 100 percent what will occur, it’s just a question of when.”

More Gigafactories Coming

What else did Musk have to tell Chris Anderson? Quite a lot, actually. He said he plans to announce “somewhere between 2 and 4 Gigafactories later this year. ” He didn’t specify where they would be located but did say they will be positioned to “address a global market.” China is one place that should be high on Elon’s list. He has said previously the world will need about 100 Gigafactories at some point to meet all its energy storage needs and quipped, “I hope I don’t have to build them all myself.”

Musk And Trump

Musk did address his connections with the Trump administration, something that has deeply irritated some of his supporters. He told Anderson,

“First of all, I’m just on two advisory councils where the format consists of going around the room and asking people’s opinion on things. So there’s like a meeting every month or two. You know, that’s the sum total of my contribution.

“But I think to the degree that there are people in the room who are arguing in favor of doing something about climate change or you know other certain social issues — you know, I mean, I’ve used the meetings I’ve had thus far to argue in favor of immigration and in favor of climate change. And if I hadn’t done that, there wouldn’t — that wasn’t on the agenda before. So maybe nothing will happen, but at least the words were said.”

Nothing Musk had to say in Vancouver was really news, but putting it all together paints a clearer picture of the man behind Tesla and how he foresees the future — a future that will touch the lives of millions of people before he is done.

Source: The Verge

May 3, 2017 2 comments

Mercedes Croove Car Sharing Service Expanding To Other Cities

written by Steve Hanley

There are two kinds of car sharing services. In one, a company owns a large number of cars and rents them out to people who need them for short trips within a defined area. In the other, private owners make their cars available online via a smartphone app. Examples of the first kind of car sharing service include Daimler’s Car2Go, Bolloré’s BlueIndy, and AAA’s new Gig program just getting underway in Oakland, California.

The private car sharing model is less common. Turo is perhaps the best known company operating in America. Mercedes started experimenting with private car sharing last December in Munich. That pilot program has been successful enough that the company is now expanding it to other German cities, including Berlin.

The Mercedes peer-to-peer model is called Croove. People connect with each other over the internet. Tell the system where you are and where you want to go, and the cloud will connect you with Croove members who want to rent their cars out to paying customers. The service lets users set their own price or let Croove establish a fair rate after taking into account supply and demand. Croove is available to owners of all vehicle makes and models. If you want to rent out your Ferrari Testarossa, you are free to do so with Croove.

The Croove model means you get a relatively spread out selection of pick-up points to choose from, though you have to return the vehicle to its origin. There’s also a paid delivery option, if you want the car to come to you. The service currently relies on someone handing you a physical key, but Mercedes intends to introduce digital keys in the future.

April 25, 2017 0 comment

AAA Launches Gig Car Sharing Service In Bay Area On April 30

written by Steve Hanley

A3 Ventures, the innovation arm of AAA, is gearing up for the launch of a new car sharing service in Oakland and Berkeley, California at the end of April. A3 Ventures is dedicated to developing new business models, products, and services for AAA. Called Gig, the new car sharing service will begin operations with a fleet of 250 Prius C sedans. All the cars are equipped with bicycle racks.

Gig members can use a smart phone app to find the nearest car. A digital key will allow drivers to unlock and drive the car once they get in. Drivers are permitted to go anywhere they wish, but must return the car to the Oakland/Berkeley area when they are done using it. Becoming a member is easy. Simply download the app, then provide your driver’s license and credit card information. The service is intended primarily for people who do not own their own car or have access to a vehicle.

“It’s extending AAA’s core focus of enabling mobility,” said Mike Hetke, executive vice president and chief innovation officer at AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah. “We see a fundamental shift from individual car ownership to shared.” Within the HomeZone, drivers may leave the car anywhere. There is no need to return it to the place where the journey began. Oakland International Airport is convenienty located within the HomeZone area.

Gig charges $2.50 per mile, $15 per hour, or $85 per day, depending on what rate is the cheapest overall for the driver. AAA members get a 10 percent discount on those rates. Gas and insurance are included in the rate, although a driver may need to buy gas if the car is operated outside the home area. For comparison purposes, Maven, the car sharing service from General Motors charges $8 per hour to rent one of its cars.

April 20, 2017 0 comment

Car2Go Car Sharing Service From Daimler Popular In China

written by Steve Hanley

China may be the perfect environment for car sharing and ride hailing services. Congestion is a problem in most of its cities. Getting permission to buy and park a car is a hassle. Why put yourself through all that drama when you can just drive someone else’s car whenever you want just by using an app on your smartphone?

June 11, 2016 0 comment

Turo CEO Will Rent You His Model X For $449 A Day

written by Steve Hanley

Would you like to take an extended test drive in a Tesla Model X before you plunk down $132,000 to buy one for yourself? Why not rent one for a day or two first? It’s easy with a company like Turo. The online car rental company, formerly known as Relay Rides, has raised more than $100 million in investments since CEO Andre Haddad founded the company in 2009. Haddad refers to it as “Airbnb for cars.” Got a car you want to rent out? You can do so quickly and easily using Turo’s smartphone app.

May 2, 2016 5 comments

Less Than 2% of Uber Revenue is Taxable by the US

written by Jo Borrás

Despite not showing big profits yet, Uber is making moves to ensure that it pays next to nothing in taxes if and when it finally does become profitable. It was recently reported that Uber, in a presentation made to investors last fall, had assigned its IP to Bermuda. As a result, less than 2% of its total revenue would be subject to taxes by the Federal government.

“Artful Dodger”, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick

This is a story that was first covered earlier this week by Bloomberg reporter David Kocieniewski, who writes that a new breed of “sharing economy” companies like Uber will, as they eventually move towards profitability, transform huge chunks of the US economy, potentially putting billions of dollars in corporate tax revenue at risk.

In the original article, Kocieniewski writes:

For years, pharmaceutical and tech companies including Pfizer, Merck, Google, and Apple have slashed their U.S. federal tax bills by using offshore tax havens and shifting profits abroad. Airbnb and Uber are starting to extend this strategy across vast new fields: PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that sharing-economy businesses generated $15 billion in revenue in 2014 and will take in $335 billion in 2025, growing largely at the expense of companies that pay billions in US taxes.

All of which should come as no surprise to people who’ve looked at Uber as a new technology that’s a bit too good to be true- even if you ignore the thousands of alleged sexual assault complaints against Uber drivers and the company’s somewhat difficult-to-understand insurance coverage policies. But that’s just my take, and I’m usually pretty negative, anyway.

What do you guys think? Is Uber making moves that are technically within the letter of the law to avoid paying taxes something that most people will ignore, or is it just one more reason to question the ethics of the company’s management? Let us know in the comments.

Source | Images: Bloomberg, via Boing Boing.

April 12, 2016 20 comments

Uber, Lyft, The Second Amendment, And You

written by Steve Hanley

On Monday, Jason Dalton, age 45, shot and killed 6 people and wounded two others in Kalamazoo, Michigan. On the surface of things, that hardly rates as a news story in America, where people shooting other people is a daily occurrence. Most of the time, such things don’t even make the news, anymore. Just same old, same old. Nothing to see here. Move along.

What makes this story different is that Jason Dalton is a driver for Uber. It is not entirely clear at this moment whether he was on duty with Uber while he was making his murderous rounds. Uber security chief Joe Sullivan tells Automotive News that Dalton was hired on January 25 of this year. He had an average customer rating of 4.73 stars out of five after giving about 100 total rides ,according to Sullivan.

Dalton successfully completed all required background checks with no reports of any prior criminal record found. “There were no red flags, if you will, that we could anticipate something like this,” Sullivan said. Uber uses the investigation service Chckr and databases including the National Sex Offender Public website to screen candidates. It also prohibits drivers and riders from carrying firearms.

Dalton has admitted “that he took people’s lives” while taking Uber fares, according to prosecutors investigating the shooting spree. He is accused of killing six people and injuring two others on Saturday at a Kalamazoo Kia dealership, an apartment building and a Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Concerns over Uber’s background check process have intensified in the wake of the incident. Critics say the company does not do enough to ensure riders are safe. For instance, it does not collect driver fingerprints or meet with drivers in person. Just like the Uber experience itself, all hiring is done online. Uber has agreed to pay $28.5 million to settle federal litigation brought by customers who say the company misrepresents the quality of its safety practices and fees.

Critics charge the shootings could have been prevented had a “panic button” feature been included on the U.S. version of Uber’s smartphone app. The feature, which was added in India following an attack by an Uber driver there, allows riders to tap a button alerting Uber and police.

The “panic button” feature could have been used by passenger Matt Mellen, who rode with Dalton roughly an hour before the first shooting. Mellen told CBS TV affiliate WWMT that Dalton sped through medians, ran stop signs and sideswiped a car before he was able to jump out at a stop. He said he tried to alert the company after the ride but was unsuccessful.

Ed Davis, a former Boston police commissioner who serves on Uber’s safety advisory board, said such a feature would not work in the U.S. Uber cannot compete with the resources of the 911 system, Davis said. He thinks the feature might actually confuse riders. Precious time could be lost while the try to figure out whether to call 911 or hit the panic button first. “In the U.S., 911 is the panic button,” Davis said.

How Uber responds to this incident could have a major impact on its business model, both here and abroad. The company’s preferred modus operandi is pugnacious push back toward anyone it perceives as a threat. Margaret Richardson is a former chief of staff under U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. She now serves on Uber’s safety advisory board along with Ed Davis. She said during a conference call that all the attention on Uber following this incident incident serves only to distract from more relevant issues.

“The focus on Uber is a distraction from the availability of guns in the hands of people who perhaps shouldn’t have such easy access to them,” Richardson said. She went on to say there is nothing Uber could have done to prevent the shootings. Good call, Margaret. Let’s make this about the Second Amendment, not Uber. Let me ask you a question, Margaret. When was the last time you heard of a regular taxi driver going on a killing spree? OK, other than in that Robert De Niro movie?

This incident involves other ride sharing services such as Lyft, as well. A Kelley Blue Book study scheduled to be released soon found that only 33% of respondents considered ride-sharing “safe,” while 48% said they would be uncomfortable riding alone with a ride-sharing driver. Karl Brauer,an analyst at KBB thinks the shootings won’t have that much impact on Uber. “It raises the question [about safety] in the average person’s mind, though,” he said. Changes in ridership habits are unlikely unless more such incidents occur or the investigation of the Kalamazoo shootings exposes potential holes in Uber’s screening process, Brauer said.

Brauer did say that incidents like this make the case for autonomous driving cars stronger. He said Uber is investing in autonomous technology partly to mitigate safety risks. Getting rid of human drivers would eliminate a major cost, as well as risks related to driver behavior. “There’s more incentive” for Uber to invest in autonomous technology in the wake of the Kalamazoo incident, Brauer said.

Brauer is apparently too young to remember Michael Crichton’s apocalyptic movie WestWorld.

February 23, 2016 0 comment

BMW Bringing Its DriveNow Car Sharing Program To Seattle

written by Steve Hanley

Originally published on Gas2.

If car sharing is the wave of the future, BMW intends to be ready. It is in the process of introducing its DriveNow carsharing service to Seattle, where it will compete with a similar service operated by Mercedes called Car2Go. Several Seattle residents have reported seeing BMW i3 cars with Seattle carsharing stickers in the Bellville neighborhood. Seattle Department of Transportation spokesman Rick Sheridan told GeekWire this week that the city has issued 63 carsharing permits to BMW.

When asked for comment, DriveNow declined to offer specifics. “BMW remains dedicated to solving the many transportation challenges faced by major cities – and interested in mobility services such as car sharing,” a spokeswoman said via email. “We are currently exploring the potential to work with a number of U.S. cities who are welcoming car sharing in their communities and offering the parking permits necessary to operate one-way flexible car sharing.”

The arrival in Seattle comes just three months after BMW suspended its DriveNow service in San Francisco. The company and the city got into a dispute over parking permit regulations that prevent carsharing programs from parking vehicles on public streets. How odd that San Francisco, which is home to an influx of tech companies and renowned as ground zero for liberalism in America, should be obstructionist when it comes to embracing what clearly will be an important form of urban mobility in the future.

“While we are disappointed to be leaving the Bay Area, we are excited about new prospective cities who are welcoming car sharing in their communities and offering the parking permits necessary to operate one way flexible car sharing,” DriveNow wrote in a statement on its website.

@DriveNowUSA Spotted in the wild on Saturday, does this mean DriveNow has arrived in Seattle? pic.twitter.com/LUyJAlZFox

— Mon-Chaio Lo (@rmclo) February 16, 2016

Car2Go, which is owned by Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, has been a big hit in Seattle since its launch 3 years ago. The company lets people locate and rent available Smart cars with their smartphone or computer, drive to their destination, and park the vehicle in any approved city parking spot. The company has plans to add another 250 vehicles to its Car2Go fleet in Seattle. “The program has been wildly successful,” transportation committee chairman Tom Rasmussen said last year.

In January 2015, the Seattle city council cleared the way for up to 3 more carsharing companies to operate in the city. Each company can receive 500 permits to start, and up to 750 if they agree to provide service across the city. That means there could be up to 3,000 cars available to people looking to get from point A to B in Seattle.

Car2Go now has more than 75,000 members sharing 741 vehicles in Seattle. “Since we launched in Seattle in December 2012, our mission has been to provide an innovative mobility solution that makes it easier for Seattle residents and visitors alike to get from Point A to Point B,” says Car2Go Seattle general manager Michael Hoitink. “We believe that an effective transportation system in any city is one with a wide range of options. Additional transportation options that complement existing modes is a win for the City of Seattle.”

In Seattle, Car2go rents its cars for 41 cents per minute, $14.99 per hour, or $84.99 per day. When the driver is done using the car, it must be parked in an approved city street parking spot, which can be anywhere in a designated “home area.” Pricing for BMW’s DriveNow program in Seattle has not been announced.

DriveNow London Adds 20 New BMW i3s To Fleet

DriveNow Launches Car Sharing Service in Stockholm

Photo by BMW

February 21, 2016 0 comment

Facebook Plans Ridesharing Feature

written by Kyle Park Points

The social media juggernaut Facebook is looking into the business of organizing and enabling carpools. The world’s most popular social media site has filed a patent with the intent to become a ridesharing platform for patrons of concerts, sporting events, protests, and other social events of the season.

Demonstrating how people could easily organize carpools through Facebook’s Event feature, the company filed for a patent in late January.

Though filing for a patent does not necessarily guarantee Facebook will develop this feature, it certainly seems like a logical progression. When RSVPing for an event, one would be able to indicate if they need a ride or if they’re driving and willing to accommodate a few passengers.

The feature would also help group travelers by certain traits and desires — Facebook Groups they’re a part of, what school they attend, or what music they enjoy. So, don’t worry too much about getting stuck in a car full of Adele fans. Unless that’s your thing – which is totally cool.

Once the trip’s pilot and passengers are set, the feature would also coordinate a route for the participants to agree upon – saving time and helping to prevent any lost drivers.

Facebook has been spending significant resources over the last several months focusing on its Events feature and its capabilities. When reporting on its 4th quarter earnings, the company cited that the 500 million people who used its Events feature created over 123 million events in 2015.

This isn’t Facebook’s first foray into the realm of transportation. After successfully integrating with Uber, Facebook is planning to bring more transportation-oriented capabilities to its Messenger – expanding to more platforms and working with more companies.

If this idea comes to fruition, it would be a brilliant step in the right direction. People could save money, gas, and the environment with a little help from social networking.

February 5, 2016 0 comment

General Motors Rolls Out Its Maven Car Sharing Service

written by Steve Hanley

The new Chevy Bolt will not have autonomous driving capability when it arrives in showrooms, but it will have 4G LTE connectivity. Why it that important? Because General Motors intends to position itself at the front of the coming car sharing revolution and the Bolt is a big part of that plan. Last month, the General said it is investing $500 million in Lyft, the ride hailing service that competes with Uber. Now it is introducing Maven, a service designed to compete with ZipCar.

Those who pretend to know the future see a world where urban residents no longer own private cars. Instead, they arrange for a ride whenever they need one using apps on their cell phones. GM says there are about 5,000,000 people who use Uber and Lyft today. It expects that number to double and then double again over the next five years.

A private car in the city sits idle 95% of the time. But the expenses associated with owning that car go on every minute of every day. Loan payments, insurance, and local registration fees don’t stop while a car is parked. Maintenance and repairs still have to be paid for, as do expenditures for parking and fuel. The idea is, a city dweller could save a ton of money each month by using a car only when needed. On the other side of the equation, corporations can make a ton of money by turning cars into 24 hour a day income producing machines.

Fewer cars on the road mean less congestion. Urban space dedicated to parking can be repurposed for recreation, bike paths and green space. People will walk more, making the society healthier and lowering medical care costs. In other words, by helping people share cars rather than own cars, General Motors and others can tap into a new revenue stream while benefiting society as a whole. What’s not to like?

“What this is all about… is making sure that we can provide a service that’s completely seamless, completely connected, very easy to use, highly personalized, and a very efficient way to get around from A to B, from a car utilization perspective,” said GM President Dan Ammann in a conference call with reporters Wednesday evening.

The cars will be compatible with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and SiriusXM, allowing users to teleport their digital existence into any vehicle they happen to be in. Julia Steyn, GM’s vice president for urban mobility, said the key is to make “the passenger and customer to feel like it’s your own vehicle.” According to The Verge, Maven signals GM’s intention to embrace car sharing rather than fighting it. “Car-share [and] ride-share, in general, is much more an opportunity for General Motors than it is a threat,” Ammann says. “It’s already a sizable marketplace, and it’s growing quite rapidly.”

Maven will only be available at 21 locations throughout the city of Ann Arbor in Michigan. At first it will use mostly Chevy Sparks but may add Chevy Bolts when they become available. But it can easily expand to include other car sharing programs in other cities. GM expects to have 5,000 users by the end of the year.

GM is not alone in pursuing car sharing, of course. Tesla CEO Elon Musk famously did a very public double take during an investors conference call last fall. Stock analyst Adam Jonas asked if Tesla is planning a similar service. Musk looked stricken and declined to answer the question.

What do you think of the car sharing idea? Is it something you would be interested in? Let us know why or why not in the comments section.

January 22, 2016 1 comment

BlueIndy Electric Car Sharing Service Has 500 Subscribers

written by Steve Hanley

The BlueIndy electric car sharing service in Indianapolis reports that it has signed up 500 subscribers during its first two months of operation. According to Autoblog, those subscribers have used the service more than 3,000 times. The program has the enthusiastic support of Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard, but has run into significant political headwinds from the city council. It has also been opposed by the local electric utility company.

BlueIndy is a subsidiary of the Bolloré Group, a French corporation that operates a similar service in Paris. That program services more than 80,000 subscribers using a fleet of 3,000 cars. BlueIndy expects to have 500 cars and a network of 200 charging stations located across the city by next year. The company has representatives located at the existing charging stations to talk to people and explain how the service works. People are always nervous about trying something new. That’s really the point of Mary Shelley’s famous book, Frankenstein.

Information is the only effective cure for ignorance. More electric car manufacturers should try a similar approach when marketing electric and plug-in hybrid cars. Yes, a lack of charging infrastructure and high prices are keeping lots of people from buying electric cars, but so is a general lack of information about what they are and how they work.

The political opposition to BlueIndy makes little sense when you consider that it will save the city millions of dollars in money it won’t have to spend to expand its public transportation system. No roads need to be built; no buses need to be purchased; and no city employees need to be hired to provide better mobility for city residents.

In a press release, BlueIndy General Manager Scott Prince said, “Reaching the 500-member mark has special significance in the land of the Indianapolis 500. Our goal is to deliver a convenient, affordable and reliable transit option. The enthusiasm for our new service has been fantastic and many people have already commented on how BlueIndy helps them save money and time and enhances their mobility in the city.” He reports that the average BlueIndy journey lasts about 20 minutes and costs subscribers about $4.00.

November 11, 2015 4 comments