...we can't imagine how our way of living can shift, but if the age of autonomous vehicle comes to fruition, then everything we had assumed about EVs and lithium are about to change in a major way.
"With the rise of autonomous vehicles, the landscape of the auto industry is poised for a seismic shift. Currently home to over a hundred brands, the next decade will witness a substantial consolidation in the automotive realm.
Two main forces will drive this: car usage rates and functionality. Most cars today are utilized less than 5% of their potential, often gathering dust in driveways.
With the advent of car-as-a-service, fewer vehicles will serve more people, disrupting the demand-supply chain. Additionally, in this new market, brand loyalty will wane.
Consumers, attracted by efficiency and cost-effectiveness, will care less about the brand and more about the service.
Hence, a significant reduction in the number of automaker brands is anticipated, challenging giants in Detroit, Germany, and Japan.
Donald Shoup, an esteemed urban planning professor at UCLA, provides insight into another profound implication: the impact on real estate. With a staggering 2 billion parking spots in the U.S., Shoup points out the startling fact that “the area of parking per car in the United States is thus larger than the area of housing per human.”
Furthermore, he reveals the hidden costs of “free parking,” estimating U.S. expenditures between $102 billion to $374 billion—somewhere in the ballpark of the Medicare and national defense budgets.
But what if these vast parking spaces become redundant? With autonomous vehicles on-demand, the demand for parking diminishes. Our cities could witness a commercial real estate boom, or perhaps, some of these spaces might metamorphose into thriving community centers or lush green parks. The future of autonomous vehicles isn't merely about technological progression - it's about reshaping societies, economies, and urban landscapes."
