Super-Cheap Driverless Cabs to Kick Mass Transit to the Curb
- Computers replacing drivers faster than industry expected
- Autonomous taxis one-quarter the price of New York cab ride
An autonomous vehicle is driven during its test drive in Singapore on Aug. 24.
Photographer: Yong Teck Lim/AP PhotoThis article is for subscribers only.
Mass transit, the lifeblood of cities worldwide, is under threat from the biggest innovation in automotive technology since Henry Ford’s assembly line first flooded streets with cars.
The self-driving vehicles being pioneered by Tesla Motors Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and others are poised to dramatically lower the cost of taxis, potentially making them cheaper than buses or subways, according to a joint report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and McKinsey & Co. Having no driver to pay could reduce taxi prices to 67 cents a mile by 2025, less than a quarter of the cost in Manhattan today, the report found.