Newsletter 
Google and Uber are both companies that have a strong end goal along with good intentions for the future of transportation. Not only are the two companies working on a variety of services and products that may help reduce the number of vehicles on the roads, but also an easy solution for individuals looking to reach a destination around their local area. Additionally, Google and Uber are both partners after Google invested $250 million into Uber back in 2013. The two CEOs recently attended the Summit At Sea gathering last Friday in Miami Florida where they discussed their hopes in how transportation will evolve.
According to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt, both would like to see a future in which there are fewer vehicles on the road though services like Uber but more importantly the future of driverless vehicles. In theory, instead of fifty vehicles traveling on the road, fifty individuals could instead share a single vehicle. This theory sounds like it could potentially be a winner for larger based cities but would likely require a bit of thinking for suburbs and other locations that are not as densely populated. There’s a number of benefits that surround fewer vehicles on the road such as less need for massive parking structures, accidents will likely drop dramatically, removing a vehicle would mean saving money on gas and other maintenance, along with the reduction of pollution.
Driverless vehicles are becoming more mainstream and happens to be one subject that could put Google and Uber up against each other. Google has been working on their own project for a driverless car for quite some time now, but Uber has also been tinkering with one as well. This would mean that both companies, while partners, are becoming competitors as time goes on. Travis Kalanick also went on to say what driverless vehicles would mean for his company and their contractors that work for Uber as drivers. Kalanick spoke of how there were plenty of time still before driverless vehicles become a problem for their hired contractors. Although, Uber does have goals in place that will help their contractors with vocational training and education before they make any type of transition period. Furthermore, the Uber CEO stated that they are new “things” that are being worked on before you’ll see any transition start to occur.