Uber just invented the bus … again

This story is originally Appear Barrier It is part of Climate cooperation.

Every few years, Silicon Valley announcing the economy announcing the “sabotage” that looks like a bus. Uber launched smart roads a decade ago, followed by a short time after Lyft shuttle for its largest competitor. Even Elon Musk tried it in 2018 with the “Urban Episode System” that has never been fulfilled Beyond the Vigas tape. Does anyone remember a vehicle?

Now it’s the role of Uber again. Horseback Company recently announced Road sharingAs the shutters will travel dozens of fixed roads, with fixed stops, picking passengers and drop them at constant times. Amid the inevitable jokes around the Silicon Valley again, the buses discover are serious questions about the meaning of this transit transport systems, air quality, and crowding.

Uber promised that the program, which was presented in seven cities at the end of May, would bring the transfer of “more affordable and more predictive prices” during peak movement hours.

“Many of our users, who live in the same area in general, work in the same region in general, and they move at the same time,” said Sashin Kanal, the chief product official in Uber, during the company’s announcement on May 14. “The concept of the road share is not new,” although he did not use the word “bus”. Instead, pictures of horse -drawn vehicles, vehicles, and Pedicabs appeared on the screen.

The CEO Dara Joshurshahi was a little more coming when He said The whole thing is “to some extent inspired by the bus.” He said that the goal is only to reduce the prices for the consumer and then help in congestion and the environment. “

But Kevin Shin, who studies this type of things in the union of the relevant scholars, wonders whether the “bus of the next generation” of Uber will do a lot for passengers or climate. “Everyone will say,” Silicon Valley is invented by the bus again. “But it is like that they are re -inventing a worse bus.”

Five years ago, the Federation of Primible Scholars issued a a report This has found that the services of Rideshare send 69 percent of the carbon dioxide that the planet calms down and other pollutants that replace them-this is due to the fact that up to 40 percent of the miles that travel by Uber and Lyft drivers are driven without a passenger, which is called “dead heads”. The report indicated that the climate defect is decreasing with the combined services such as the uberx class – but it is still much more green than possessing and driving the car, unless it is Electric car.

Besides the benefit of the IFFY climate, wider concerns are about what this means for transportation in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Viladelphia, Dallas, Boston and Baltimore – and the people who rely on them.

“Transit is a public service, so the goal of the Obour Agency is to serve all its customers, whether they are rich or poor, whether it is the maximum path that stimulates profits or not.” The entities that do all this come with accountability mechanisms – panels, public meetings and vocal passengers – to ensure that they are supposed to do. “It barely any of this is in its place for a opery.” He said this is the focus of the public transport model Without public accountability.