Auto Makers Threatened By Both Tech Company Autos And Ridesharing (caranddriver.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Car and Driver: For automakers, the first bit of bad news is that people seem quite receptive to buying a vehicle from a tech brand such as Apple or Google, according to Capgemini's 17th Cars Online report, which surveyed some 8000 consumers in eight countries... Consumer interest in buying cars from tech brands has grown from 49 percent in its 2015 study to 57 percent in the latest report... There is also the growing popularity of ride-sharing services offered by the likes of Uber and Lyft. Fewer people will feel the need to have their own car if it's easy and inexpensive to order up a cab on their smartphones. Capgemini's survey found that 34 percent of car buyers see ride sharing and related services as a genuine alternative to owning a vehicle.

Comments

So join them

[ranton]

The car companies already realize all of this, which is why they are also getting into the autonomous car and ride sharing business. They are late though, and they will probably move too slowly because of fear of cannibalizing existing sales. But they at least see the writing on the wall so time will tell if they can get their act together in time.

Re:So join them

[Bender0x7D1]

A normal car is idle 95% of the time, so a ride-share car that is idle on 50% of the time, can replace 10 normal cars.

You assume an even distribution of use. However, 99% of cars are idle at 3:30am; but only a small percentage are idle during rush hour.

The only way that will change is if we have a massive shift in how people live, work, and socialize. However, even then, most people will be active during the day - and at home at night. Which will still skew the demand curves.

When haven't car companies felt threatened?

[mykepredko]

In my life, I have read about how the North American car companies have been threatened by:
- Japanese Imports
- The Gas Crisis
- Better Japanese Imports
- Korean (and other low-cost geography) Imports
- Technology
- German Imports
- Electric and Hybrid Vehicles
And have stayed in business. If anything, the greatest risk to their businesses is their own complacency and unwillingness to recognize deficiencies in time to allow external threats to establish themselves as niche (and larger) players.

And now Google Apple, Uber and Lyft's are a threat? Maybe and I would expect that GM & Ford (along with Fiat Chrysler) will miss the initial wave, but will offer competing solutions that will maintain their positions in the automotive food chains.

Re:And this is why software engineers are idiots.

[sinij]

The other 99% is market hype and bubbles.

When I am buying a dishwasher, a pair of shoes, or a car I want hardware. It is CRAZY to force me into SaaS or Cloud or even just apps in these cases. This is pets.com all over again.

Re:Everybody wants a car

[ShanghaiBill]

Perhaps they meant there isn't enough metal that is economically viable to extract from the earth's crust to go around.

That is not even close to true. There are billions of times more that we need, and far more than a billionth of it is economically extractable. The price of both steel and aluminum is going down, and the world is awash with excess steel capacity, while at the same time cars are using less, replacing metal with carbon composites and plastic.

Perhaps you also think we are going to run out of carbon? After all, it is hundreds of times rarer than either aluminum or iron. There is only enough for each person to have a few million tons.

Abundance of elements in the Earth's crust