Mobility as a Service clearly makes resounding sense for some users in particular. Cars have long been the second most expensive purchases many people make yet private motorists leave them parked for 96% of the time while still paying for insurance, servicing and other costs.
The elderly, infirm and other vulnerable members of society will also benefit enormously, a report from the International Longevity Centre UK identifying that circa 1.5 million elderly persons are effectively trapped in their own homes because of the inadequacies and inaccessibility of public transport.
With the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing finding that around one in six of over-65s will struggle to attend hospital appointments, the ability to summon driverless vehicles that will then potentially join up with vastly-improved and ‘smart’ public transport networks will be a breath of fresh air to such people.
Placing aside for a moment concerns over job losses among taxi drivers, couriers, hauliers and chauffeurs, and ignoring cries from swathes of people who love driving and would miss physical engagement if autonomous vehicles are at some point in the future allowed to operate without human eyes and hands remaining as safety nets, driverless tech’ still presents many unknowns.
UK drivers lost 30 hours’ productivity during 2015 on average, according to INRIX’s Traffic Scorecard, London drivers affected the worst, seeing 101 hours whittled away behind the steering wheel. One ominous question arising is how people will use the time clawed back once driverless vehicles are commonplace.
Ofcom’s Media Attributes Report 2016 identified that adults in the UK spend nearly 22 hours online every week in their personal time, not even while working. Spending an average of over eight hours daily looking at screens, during which smartphones will be checked more than 150 times, it’d be a travesty if the time liberated by autonomous vehicles isn’t used for boosting wellbeing, from napping, reading and learning new skills to conversing with family and friends and simply embracing mindfulness while taking in passing scenery.
HR departments will need to decide whether employees who use travelling time solely for doing extra work will hence be able to finish their days earlier. Unrelated to autonomous vehicle development, Italy is currently considering trialling 4-day weeks, while France has introduced a ‘right to disconnect’ law giving certain employees the right to avoid work emails outside working hours.
Autonomous vehicles and MaaS will undoubtedly bring many positive results but a balance clearly needs to be struck to safeguard health, wellbeing and social development.
Andrew Brown-Allan is a director of Trak Global Group
