At a recent event outlined to us by TU-Automotive, Daimler gave their take on the future of mobility.
When Car to Go was started by Daimler in 2008 there were 100,000 car sharing users in Germany. Today there are one million. 10% of accommodation in London and 17% in New York is based on the Airbnb model i.e. Sharing, so Daimler believe that car sharing will continue to grow.
Morgan Stanley maintains that the Auto Industry is ripe for disruption as the mobility market is worth over $10 trillion. It also maintains that some vehicles will be owned in the autonomous future but we will also see the arrival of the Robo-Taxi.
Daimler believes that the roads will be safer and that the quality of life in cities will improve as a result of autonomy. But unlike Elon Musk, they believe that some people will want a premium vehicle and not just run of the mill vehicles. However manufacturers need to have strong digital connections with the owner in the future. Daimler support Car to Go for car sharing and also have the MyTaxi App for those who want to be driven.
In terms of the digital connection, mobile will be the leader in the medium term. In 2014 the number of smartphones being sold each was higher than the entire global vehicle fleet. Mobile usage continues to increase and so manufacturers must connect via the smart phone medium.
We, at Car And Us.com believe that mobile connection within vehicles using the smart phone is a way forward for the connected car. Car And Us.com allows owners to connect with each other via their registration, form groups and can organize sharing amongst themselves or indeed sell their cars in a peer to peer environment.
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