Name of the Game : Co-operation

There was a time when a Company had to compete with other companies within its own Industry

Entry-barriers across industries were very high

No more !

In the Internet Age , a Company never knows from where a competitor will spring up and completely re-write the " Rules of the Competition Game " !

It seems , the rules of this new Competition Game is , " CO-OPERATION "

Something like : " If you cannot lick them , then join them "

FOR  EXAMPLE :

The existing Car Manufacturers are being threatened by the " Non - Car Manufacturers " such as Amazon / Google / Apple / Alibaba / Baidu etc , who are rushing headlong into manufacture of Autonomous ( Driverless ) Cars

So these Car Manufacturers have realized the threat looming on the not-so-distant horizon and started tying-up with " Ride Share " companies

Eg:

*    General Motors with Lyft

*    Toyato  with Uber

*    Volkswagen with Gett

*    BMW with Scoop

*    Ford ( India ) with Zoomcar

*    Mahindra & Mahindra with Ola

WHY  ?

Because they have realized that the  TECTONIC  SHIFT  shaking up the Car Industry is :

If you can have " Transport as a Service " delivered WHERE you wants , WHEN you wants , WITHIN  5 minutes and CHEAP , then why OWN  a car ? - and worry about repairs / parking / driver / taxes  ?

Ride sharing services are re-writing the rules of " Asset Ownership Vs Asset Service "

Remember , some 30 years , in many parts of India , homes and shops , used to " OWN " a small privately owned diesel-operated GenSet , since there were long hours of power BLACK-OUTS  ?  One could not depend upon State owned power supply companies . You had to fend for yourself !

But when power from Public Utility Companies became abundant / cheap and reliable , private  Gensets disappeared  !

That is about to happen in case of privately owned cars of which India produced some 2.8 million in 2015-16

HOW  ?

A privately owned car ( may be ) operates for just 2.4 hours ( out of 24 hours ) per day . That is 10 % utilization

Rest of the time , it is parked

But suppose , it was available for plying on the roads , for 50 % of the time ( 12 hours per day ) ?

That is 5 times as much ! And available to ANYONE at a moment's notice ( thru Mobile App )

Then , it is theoretically possible that the number of NEW cars Indian private owners buy , may go down to 0.5 million per year ( as against 2.8 million ) , since few people would want to " Buy / Own " a car !

That is a huge threat to existing car manufacturers ! Imagine being made obsolete by Ride-Sharing Companies !

  

WHAT   NEXT  ?

Next tectonic shift is :

DRIVER-LESS  CARS  =  LESS-CAR  ROADS

Why do you think , car-companies like Tesla / General Motors / VW  and non-car companies like Google / Uber etc are frantically working to launch " AUTONOMOUS ( DRIVER-LESS ) " cars ?

They have no love lost for the drivers ! ( May be , a little bit ! )

In a traffic jam , taking a taxi from Andheri to Churchgate , will take you 90 minutes , even if it is a Uber or Ola

So , a Ride Sharing company may save you those other hassles ( repairs / parking / taxes / driver etc ) , but it does not save you any travel-time , to go from A to B

That ( no reduction in travel time ) holds good , even for DRIVER-LESS , ride-sharing taxies !

Diver or no driver , travel time remains the same

Except for another " PARADIGM  SHIFT " in case of DRIVER-LESS cars , viz:

Its utilization can easily go up to 90 % of 24 hours !

Imagine 1 LAKH , DRIVER-LESS , Uber / Ola ride-sharing taxies roaming the streets of Mumbai , 24 hours a day !

That may eliminate from the roads of Mumbai , 10 LAKH private cars ,  making Mumbai , a

*  less CAR  /  less  TRAFFIC JAM  /  less  POLLUTED /  less NOISY /  less TRAVEL-TIME  / less ACCIDENT , city  !

I hope Shri Nitin Gadkariji , re-focuses on replacing Old Polluting Petrol / Diesel Vehicles ( V-VMP ) with Driver-less Ride Sharing Future of Urban Transport

I am sure , he is aware of the Guidelines released by the US Department of Transportation just 2 days back , which outlined safety expectations and encourage uniform rules for the DRIVER-LESS CAR technology  

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23  Sept  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs