Automobiles Ueber Alles?

摘要

THE DISRUPTIVE ENVIRONMENTAL promise of ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft is to make private-car ownership a thing of the past. Why pay to own and maintain a car if you can simply summon a ride-maybe a self-driving one!-from your phone whenever you need one? Without cars, the theory goes, people might choose biking, scooting, walking, or public transit. In addition to green space where parking lots used to be, there would be a vast reduction in the climate impact of transportation-which recently outstripped power plants as the largest source of U.S. carbon emissions. "As people get used to the idea of 'Maybe I don't have to take my car for that trip,'" says AdamGromis, Uber's public policy managerfor sustainability, "you're unchaining people from their personal car and getting them out into the world of shared mobility."