Soon, People Will Start Living In Their Cars Instead Of Their Homes

Tech giant Intel has predicted a boom in what it calls ‘The Passenger Economy.” With the advent of emerging smart technologies, car owners and drivers will soon be transformed into “idle passengers,” thereby having more time and room for relaxation while on the move.

Intel’s analyst firm Strategy Analytics, which came up with the study explored possible scenarios that would make vehicle driving an enjoyable experience.

According to the study, content producers will look at creating “Movable movies” and will develop custom content formats to match short and long travel times, the study said.

With a focus on “car-venience,” companies working on smart tech will dole out onboard beauty salons to touch-screen tables for remote collaboration, fast-casual dining, remote vending, mobile health care clinics and treatment pods, and even platooning pod hotels.

In short, vehicles will become transportation experience pods.

“Employers, office buildings, apartment complexes, university campuses and housing estates will offer MaaS or mobility-as-a-perk to add value to and distinguish their offer from competitors or as part of their compensation package,” the company stated in its press release.

Strategy Analytics also predicts an explosive economic trajectory growing from $800 billion in 2035 to $7 trillion by 2050.

Self-driving cars will add $7 trillion a year to global economy, says Intel https://t.co/9PSQt002rs @telebusiness #selfdrivingcars

— Driverless Now (@DriverlessNow) June 2, 2017

“Companies should start thinking about their autonomous strategy now,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. “Less than a decade ago, no one was talking about the potential of a soon-to-emerge app or sharing economy because no one saw it coming. This is why we started the conversation around the Passenger Economy early, to wake people up to the opportunity streams that will emerge when cars become the most powerful mobile data generating devices we use and people swap driving for riding,” he said.

Marc Andreessen explains how self-driving cars could create a bunch of jobs https://t.co/O9XessZlcA via @Recode #selfdrivingcars #jobs

— Jeroen Bartelse (@JeroenBartelse) June 1, 2017

New digital business models ushered in by personal computing, the internet, ubiquitous connectivity and smartphones gave birth to whole new economies. Autonomous driving will do the same, the company stated in its press release.

The new report frames the value of the economic opportunity through both a consumer and business lens and begins to build use cases designed to enable decision-makers to develop actionable change strategies.

“Not unlike the space race of the 1960s, this announcement is a rallying cry to the world to put its best minds on this challenge,” said Greg Lindsay, urbanist and mobility futurist.

“The future of mobility, economic advancement and the emergence of new growth opportunities like the Passenger Economy demand ongoing dialogue. I am excited to partner with Intel, take this discussion on the road and look at solutions through the lens of the diverse industries that will shape our future – from automakers to investors and policy makers to startups,” said Lindsay.

“Autonomous technology will drive change across a range of industries and define a new landscape, the first green shoots of which will appear in the business-to-business sector,” said study co-author Harvey Cohen, president, Strategy Analytics.

“The emergence of pilotless vehicle options will first appear in developed markets and will reinvent the package delivery and long-haul transportation sectors. This will relieve driver shortages around the world and account for two-thirds of initial projected revenues,” Cohen said.

The study also indicated that autonomously operated vehicle commercialization will gain steam by 2040 – generating an increasingly large share of the projected value and heralding the emergence of instantaneously personalized services.

Public safety

According to the study, conservatively, 585,000 lives can be saved due to self-driving vehicles in the era of the Passenger Economy from 2035 to 2045.

Self-driving vehicles are expected to free more than 250 million hours of consumers’ commuting time per year in the most congested cities in the world. Reductions in public safety costs related to traffic accidents could amount to more than $234 billion over the Passenger Economy era from 2035-2045.

[Featured Image by Francisco Seco/AP Images]