I was watching Shark Tank over the weekend and one of the guest judges was a founder/early investor in Uber. Of course, he's thinks Uber is changing transportation and to some degree, he is correct. He also said some things that were way off base, at least right now.
He mentioned that there were good odds that if you went to a mall, you took an Uber. Mark Cuban responded with the insightful and sarcastic comment, "Yes, that's why there is always parking available at the mall." Cuban is right-if everyone at the mall took Uber to get there than logically, there would be much more parking available at the mall. I don't go to malls much but last time I checked stores were closing at most malls, so I'm not sure malls were a great example for either man.
Cuban is basically correct though. In some cities, I'm sure Uber/Lyft etc, IS changing how we drive and get from point A to point B. But I'm not sure ride sharing will spread much further than the cities and suburbs, at least right now. For whatever else they are, the ride sharing services are fundamentally like taxi services. You pay someone to take you somewhere. In the rural areas (And I live very rural) virtually everyone has their own car and it is a necessity. In the big cities (New York, LA, Chicago) I'm sure you don't need a car and having one can be just a pain in the ass. If I lived in a city (which I would never do) I'm sure I wouldn't have a car and would rely on Uber.
Obviously I'm not sure what the future holds for driving. I'm very much looking forward to self driving cars. Hopefully my children or grandchildren will be able to use them often. Since computers generally don't drive drunk, speed, or make mistakes via human error I think they'll be safer than human driven cars. That's in the future though-could be five years, could 25 years. Uber and Lyft are changing the way some people in the city commute, but it remains to be seen if they'll change how the entire country does.
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