Do driverless cars spell the end for local cab, car and coach firms?
They may not be on the road anytime soon but John McCallion MD of Groundscope is of the view that driverless car technology should give ground transportation players pause for thought
The UK government’s recent £20 million investment into driverless car research and development shows that interest in this area of the market shows no sign of abating.
Andrew Jones, Minister for Transport stated during the announcement that; “driverless cars will bring great benefits to our society and economy and I want the UK to lead the way in developing this exciting technology.”
Little surprise the sector is expected to be worth £900 billion by 2025. In addition, says the Financial Times it is forecasted by KPMG that the push towards driverless vehicles could create up to 320,000 new jobs in the UK and deliver £51bn of economic benefits.
However, if you look past the positive benefits that driverless technology could bring – it does beg the question: what does this disruptive technology mean for those whose jobs are behind the wheel?
While it is not expected that society will be adopting this technology en masse any time soon, there could be serious implications for taxi, coach or car drivers whose core skills could be replaced by automated technology.
Drive to differentiate
Perhaps a better question to ask is how can drivers differentiate to ensure they remain indispensable in the driverless car era?
One of the key differentiators of taxi, coach and limo drivers is the service they offer to customers. It is their ability to deliver a high quality, relaxed and enjoyable journey for, say example, a chief executive on his or her way to an important meeting who has a certain level of expectation when it comes to service.
Flexibility is another important differentiator. Business travellers often work on a very tight schedule and are juggling multiple journey bookings. When it comes to unexpected delays they need to be able to speak to a service which can take the stress away and coordinate a solution efficiently. Having that human touch or a taxi driver with local knowledge could be imperative in such situations. A driverless car could take you from A to B, but doesn’t have the sophistication to handle these disruptive events.
Driverless cars arguably aren’t yet inevitable. The cost of getting a city to support the infrastructure that is required, such as appropriate parking spaces and lane control, is huge. Other challenges will be the standardisation of vehicles, enactment of legislation, not to mention grappling with ethical issues that may arise. In fact
If it does happen though, it will be a serious disruptor to the industry. To respond, drivers must focus on what differentiates them and they must start to do this now by focusing on their ability to deliver a high quality and individualised experience.
EyeforTravel take
It is not just in the UK that investments are being made into driverless technology research. In fact, Uber has recently formed a partnership with the University of Arizona to research new mapping and transportation innovations — including driverless cars. However, as John McCallion points out in his opinion piece, there are still many hurdles to overcome. Indeed, while the technology already exists, an interesting article from the BBC suggests that ‘there are still serious doubts about how we humans will adapt to being driven by a robot’. More doubts on whether the technology will become mainstream comes from the 2015 Drive Report from market research company JD Power. It proves that drivers aren’t that keen on new technologies and finds that at least 20% percent of new-vehicle owners have never used 16 of the 33 technology features measured. The five features owners most commonly “never use” are:
- In-vehicle concierge (43%)
- Mobile routers (38%)
- Automatic parking systems (35%)
- Head-up display (33%)
- Built-in apps (32%).
So it may be that humans actually do want to remain in the driver seat or at least be driven by someone they can speak to!
This opinion piece is penned by John McCallion, managing director of GroundScope, a global ground transportation platform for the corporate travel sector. His views are his own.