Outlook at the Rest of 2020 – elections, shared mobility and driverless vehicles

2020 has been a strange year, but it’s not over yet: we will have the U.S. elections in just a few days now. Here in California, Proposition 22 is on the ballot. We get to say whether the drivers for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash etc. are independent contractors or employees. The outcome of this vote, which is one of the highest funded propositions in the history of California, will have great implication for the business and operation of shared mobility – in an extreme case those services might come to an end.

Should those mobility services cease – which probably is not too likely after all, then the solution might lie in driverless solutions. Therefore it is interesting to note that Waymo – just like every October for the last 3 years – just made announcements that driverless rides are coming to the public. We will see what’s behind this. In my mind, for broad deployment, infrastructure investments are essential, which in return might be impacted by the outcome of the presidential elections in the U.S.

Certainly 2020 is not over yet, either way it will have been quite a year.