The Rise of Autonomous Transportation and the Fate of the Driver
Will Rideshare Drivers Be Left in the Dust as the Industry Progresses?
Over 50 companies currently have permits to test self-driving vehicles in the state of California. While a sizable smattering of these companies is composed of lesser-known startups, the bulk of the list consists of major brands. Practically every big player in the tech and/or transportation industry has some skin in the game. And of course they do.
The dawn of the self-driving car as the standard transportation provider is unavoidable. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for industry leaders to intentionally miss out on this groundbreaking movement. Car manufacturers, rideshare apps, consumer electronics makers, and computer chip builders are all understandably competing to dominate this unstoppable and socio-transformative industry progression.
Google’s Waymo and Uber appear to be slightly ahead of the bunch and some test-launches have already been performed. However, there is still a good deal of development to be done before any of these companies start to fully infiltrate cities with their autonomous vehicles. There have already been loads of speed bumps along the way and more set-backs are inevitable. Truly impactful technological advancement is always clunky, disruptive, and often disastrous before it can become the new normal.
The Frontrunners
Waymo’s and Uber’s “self-driving” test runs are great examples of the messiness of progress. Famous for jumping the gun when it comes to rolling out their tech and services, Uber went full speed ahead when it came to their self-driving tests earlier last year. Tragically, a woman in Tempe, AZ was struck and killed by one of their autonomous vehicles as a result of their over-eagerness. After a relatively brief period of adjustment and reflection, Uber’s self-driving cars are now back on the road. A new “gentler” CEO and an attempt at rebranding mean that they’re testing much more cautiously and deliberately this time around.
On the other hand, Waymo (a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet) has technically officially launched their self-driving vehicles in Arizona as of late last year. Only members of their “Early Rider” program are capable of booking rides and each vehicle will still be accompanied by a human driver during the initial phases of their launch. The service area is fairly small, the maneuverability of the cars is limited, and the pick-up and drop-off areas are much less dynamic than a traditional ridesharing option. As you can see, the implementation of self-driving vehicles in major cities is not going to be particularly streamlined or speedy.
The Plight of the Driver
That’s right. The self-driving takeover definitely won’t occur overnight. It’ll be a slow rolling process that will take time, patience, and lots of trial and error. Still, we’ve already started to see tangible shifts in the transportation and tech sectors. When the largest corporations in these industries decide to set a tremendous amount of money and resources aside for a specific project, things will obviously get shuffled around in unfamiliar ways. And sometimes that shuffling can have a detrimental impact on the various people involved with these industries.
What we’re talking about here is the plight of the rideshare service providers, a.k.a the drivers. When Uber, the largest rideshare driver “employer”, decides to spend billions focusing on new technology that will essentially render their “employees” useless, the effects of that shift can be felt well before the actual rollout occurs. Drivers can already tell that they are no longer the most important thing on Uber’s mind creating an atmosphere that doesn’t bode well for a company that has essentially been at odds with its so-called “partners” since day one.
ATMs and Automobiles
Of course, Uber’s former CEO was adamant that their shift toward self-driving vehicles wouldn't be detrimental to their drivers. He likened the situation to that of the invention of ATMs. Back then, many people feared that ATMs would put bank tellers out of the job. In fact, they ended up making it easier for smaller banks to grow and hire more tellers with increasingly specialized skillsets. Banking got better for everyone, including the “low-level” employees.
There is some legitimacy to this analogy. Firstly, as we mentioned above, self-driving cars are not going to start any overnight revolutions. There will still be a need for rideshare drivers throughout the long and arduous process of self-driving’s eventual all-out takeover.
It should also be noted that cities are not currently built well for self-driving vehicles. Most major cities are built around transportation networks that focus on a human element. What this means is, there will need to be large-scale infrastructural development put in place before self-driving vehicles have the ability to do what humans do.
Of course, as the technical capabilities of self-driving cars improve and overtake even highly specialized human-centric functions, the infrastructure of cities won’t matter nearly as much. As it stands, however, that reality is still a long ways away. Until then, humans will be required for a significant portion of last-mile transportation even as autonomous vehicles become ubiquitous.
While Kalanick’s ATM analogy is somewhat accurate, it is still incredibly problematic. It’s unlikely that self-driving cars are going to help smaller transportation companies grow as the ATM did for smaller banks. At least at first, the onset of autonomous vehicles is most likely going to make the biggest corporations in the tech and transportation industry even bigger. And when Uber becomes even larger than it is and that growth is caused by the tech that replaces its reliance on drivers, then their already strained relationship will only get messier.
The Benefits of Self-Driving Cars
Before we begin to demonize the self-driving vehicle, we should take a gander at what this new technology has to offer. The idealistic outlook on autonomization of transportation involves the elimination of traffic, an almost complete reduction of accidents, and fewer cars on the road. And these are just some of the larger potential implications.
Imagine living in a world where traffic doesn’t exist, parking is obsolete, and vehicle-based injuries and deaths almost never happen. These unfortunate realities of our current society are so thoroughly entrenched in our daily lives that it’s practically impossible to really understand what that utopian future would look like. Everything would be more efficient, we’d have enormous reductions in the negative environmental and human health impact of vehicle-related emissions, all transportation infrastructure would be completely transformed or re-appropriated, and billions of lives would ultimately be improved.
Of course, this fantasy world is not going to come into existence any time soon. It’s going to take a long, painful, and awkward transitionary period before we get anywhere close to that seemingly perfect reality. And in the meantime, we’re going to have to deal with the immediately tangible matter-at-hand.
Eventually, Robots Will Win
In all seriousness though, we will eventually live in a world where the rideshare driver is completely obsolete. That’s an unavoidable reality. At the same time, we’ll also be living in a world where most current jobs will be accomplished more efficiently by robots. Practically no industry is immune to this inevitability. The rideshare driver, the restaurant chef, and even the writer of this blog will be replaced by AI and machines.
There are two things to take away from this.
- No career paths are truly future-proof.
- It’s best to start working on ways to earn money that are fluid, flexible, and adaptable.
That doesn’t mean don’t become a rideshare driver. On the contrary, we think that providing rideshare services is an excellent option for facing the robot-infested future. That’s because it requires minimal commitment, it teaches you how to be flexible, and enables you to enjoy the freedom to explore any opportunity that comes your way without being held back or caged in.
The problem with traditional rideshare services, however, is that they’re extremely imbalanced in terms of give and take. They require so much time and effort from their drivers, take enormous portions of their revenue, and then use that money to develop self-driving technology that will eventually replace their drivers. In fact, when you look at it through this lens, rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft have theoretically been using their drivers in an unfair and unsustainable fashion in order to fund the development of their true end-games, the autonomous vehicle.
The Tryp Difference
At Tryp, we’ve been watching this painfully unhealthy relationship unfold between drivers and rideshare apps for the better part of this past decade. We knew there was a better, more balanced way to approach this partnership and so we designed a paradigm-shifting platform to disrupt the current rideshare industry and put the driver back behind the wheel.
Tryp is a software as a service (SaaS) provider that has created a mostly decentralized rideshare platform where drivers and riders connect in an innovative and exciting way. We operate with a subscription-based payment model where drivers pay a low monthly membership fee and in exchange get to keep 100% of the fare and tip* from each ride. Due to our transformative business model, we can afford to charge riders less for rides and to eliminate things like surge/peak pricing and fluctuating service fees. On top of all of that, we’re implementing unparalleled loyalty and referral reward programs so that all of our users have multiple ways in which they can save, earn, and get to where they’re going with total peace of mind.
The rideshare driver is at risk of being overtaken by the self-driving car. That doesn’t mean drivers should abandon all hope. It will be many years before the human driver is completely obsolete. Before that occurs, doesn’t it make more sense to drive for a rideshare app that places your success first, lets you keep 100% of the fare and tip* from each ride, and is not going to use your revenue in order to fund the very thing that would put you out of business?
We certainly think so. As we mentioned before, no career path is future-proof. Driving for Tryp, however, is as close as you can get to achieving total financial freedom and occupational flexibility with limited commitment.
Learn more about how we’re creating a better, healthier relationship with drivers at Tryp Rides.
* Tryp Drivers keep 100% of the fare that is based on the miles driven and time spent on each ride. All tips, wait times and cancellation fees will also go to the drivers. The service fee, as well as any auxiliary fees involving toll roads, airports, or anything outside of the normal fare, will be paid to Tryp from the passenger.
