It’s not much of a secret, but car companies are scared of what companies like Uber could do to their business model. Uber has made it very easy for everyone to not need a car. By making their rides cheaper than taxi’s, and even easier to get than a taxi. In fact, many of us would prefer to get an Uber over a Taxi, just because of how convenient it is and the price we pay for it. With self-driving cars on the immediate horizon, it’s not a big surprise that Uber is interested in self-driving cars. As it could help them get more business and make a bigger profit.
This worries companies like GM. While they are working on self-driving cars, they are also wanting to sell these cars. And if more people are just going to use Ubers, this means that they will be selling less cars. In fact, recently, General Motors invested $500 million with Lyft to build self-driving cars together. And today, the Detroit-based auto maker has bought up Sidecar, who announced they were going out of business last month. Sidecar was the Uber before Uber. And they failed to compete with Uber, hence them going out of business. The deal is said to be around $30 million, and reports state that GM has the knowledge that Sidecar didn’t have, to compete against rivals Lyft and Uber.
GM isn’t the only one looking to get into the ridesharing business. Google, who has been openly testing self-driving cars for quite a few years now, is also looking to create their own ridesharing business using their own self-driving cars. As are Ford and Daimler (Mercedes’ owner). If ridesharing is the future, this means that we will no longer need to be buying our own cars anymore. Which could save us a ton of money each year (paying for the car, paying for gas, maintenance, insurance, etc). Not to mention, it should also mean less cars on the road, and less pollution. We can always hope.
Right now Uber is at the top of the ridesharing world. Being valued at $60 billion right now, it’s no wonder why they are so popular. However, they have some stiff competition rising. So they’ll need to stay on top of their game to stay at the top of the ridesharing mountain.