Can Uber save the world?
How the sharing economy can help solve the climate change crisis.
When people think about the sharing economy today they think of current big successes such as Uber and Airbnb.
But this is just the beginning — new services are popping up all the time: Airbnb for storage space, car parking and even food.
Some of these will succeed and some will fail, but each one is chipping away at the how we perceive the general concept of ownership.
Uber is generally seen as disrupting the taxi business — but they have a bigger vision to disrupt the notion of owning a car.
Kids growing up today won’t need to own a car. They are expensive to purchase, run, insure and maintain. Not to mention you have to learn how to drive one!
Why buy a car when you can summon one in 5 mins from your phone or watch. As Uber moves towards driverless cars nobody will need to own a car (apart from Uber, of course).
The sharing economy side effect
Another very important advantage emerges as well: making all cars driverless would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent!
A fleet about 15 percent of the size of all private cars could service the same population, if scheduled correctly, estimated Greenblatt. But the real savings would be found in the operating cost. Even when estimating that an electric, driverless car would cost $150,000 up front, researchers say that a car that could drive 24/7, not require a salary and use no gasoline would pay for itself before five years. The paper says that price will drop drastically, citing an IHS study that says autonomy will only add around $5,000 to a car’s current sticker price by 2030.
So if Uber and similar car-sharing companies have to potential to help us with our environmental issues, do other sharing companies also have the potential to help?
Airbnb started out as a way of hiring an airbed and a breakfast to those who needing somewhere to stay. Now the company is massive and threatening the traditional hotel business.
What might their long term vision be? Could they be looking to disrupt the concept of owning your own home? The number of young homeowners today has collapsed. I’m not suggesting Airbnb has had any impact on that, but it might be a trend that they will take advantage of.
And what implications would that mean? Less wasted space, less houses and apartments lying dormant, empty or shuttered up. In a time of rising homelessness and an increasing population, this can only be a good thing.
So the sharing economy can make the world more efficient. Spare capacity can be used when before it would be wasted.
“The things you own end up owning you.”
The way we live our lives today is simply untenable. If everyone lived as we do in the UK we’d need three planets to support us. We only have one.
What is the point of owning a power drill, washing machine or a vacuum cleaner when they sit there gathering dust for 99% of their lives. Each one requires valuable resources to manufacture and takes up space in an ever crowded world.
The sharing economy can exist to service all of these needs — laundry services, cleaning services, on demand hairdressers, on demand gardening, on demand food.
Just like the idea that a fleet of on-demand vehicles would be 15% the size of the amount of cars on the road today, we would need to manufacture and store a lot less stuff.
Businesses can change their concept of ownership too. In fact it’s already started.
Technology companies used to own and maintain their own servers and infrastructure. Now it’s all hosted in the cloud by Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Companies don’t need to own servers any more and are more efficient for it.
WeWork is reimagining the concept of the office by providing on-demand office space, equipment and resources such as beer fridges and internet connections. They are again challenging the concept of ownership and at the same time reducing wastage.
We are in a time of turmoil. The sharing economy will continue to disrupt and destroy traditional businesses. It will be very painful in the short term, but I believe that in the long-term it may very well save us.
I’m no fan of Uber’s unsavory tactics. Maybe their aggressive arrogance will lead to their their downfall. It doesn’t really matter though — a movement has started that is picking up momentum.
I’m excited to see where it goes.
