The False Claim of CASE
We recently announced our series B fundraise, lead by Toyota Motor Corporation. This is a very exciting milestone for us, primarily because we can get back to growing the business. A big part of getting back to growing the business is to demonstrate that autonomy can unlock a totally new way of thinking about shared mobility.
“Shared mobility” is a hot topic right now. Many automakers and mobility companies are racing towards a future of connected, autonomous, shared and electric (CASE) transportation, but they are overlooking a critical component in the CASE model: defining shared mobility beyond the individual rider to truly transform urban environments for the common good.
The mobility industry is in an age of change and there is significant investment going into the advancement of technologies and services to help people get around, especially in developed countries. The investments to date have focused on e-hailing, semiconductors, AV sensors, and infotainment. Often the focus in the industry is on ride-hailing as car share business models have typically been challenged to prove their value. E-hailing, or ride-hailing, has been shown to reduce ridership in public transit, further adding to the congestion in cities due to single rider vehicles and “deadhead” vehicles, where drivers are cruising streets waiting to find their next passenger.
The focus on ride-hailing for the industry is typically to support riders’ desire to improve their individual financial savings and mobility needs. This individualized focus results in increased VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) and congestion in cities. The congestion will only get worse as those vehicles transition to autonomous, allowing more people the opportunity for personal transportation, such as the young, elderly, disabled, or any person without a driver’s license.
As our global society urbanizes, the population that cities must serve is growing rapidly while the ability to allot more land to roads is not. This means that product focus should be placed more on urbanized use cases, as companies will have a larger market to serve. For the automotive and mobility industries this has specific implications in how they need to think about their ridership, but also the infrastructure they require for operation. If our roadways are not getting any bigger, we need to use them more effectively, which means shifting some people into higher volume forms of transit. There is definitely a role for the passenger vehicle to play in this future, especially for the first and last mile, but if we want to paint a truly better future for people we need to talk about shared mobility in this broader context.
We need to transition how we think and talk about shared vehicles, especially in the urban context, and ensuring make sure that shared means truly shared rides including carpool, buses, and trains. We at May Mobility are excited to continue on this mission; transforming cities making them safer, greener and more accessible; and this round of funding will help us to do just that.
