Mobileye, an Israeli self-driving company, has teamed up with a Chinese automaker to develop a Level 4 private car. The day when you can enjoy full-fledged self-driving with your own car may come sooner than you think.
These private self-driving cars will be systems that are not limited to specific uses such as self-driving taxis, and expectations are high for a highly flexible design. It may be applied not only for private use but also for various purposes as a multi-purpose self-driving car.
In addition to personal use, it can also be used for business purposes. Ideas for self-driving self-driving cars to make money by utilizing unmanned total driving technology will likely emerge.
In this article, we'll look at how self-driving cars can earn their own money after they leave their owners. There are actually various regulations in business, but we will not consider them here.
Article table of contents
Like ad trucks that run in the city center, the wrapping advertising business has been and still is a certain popularity. There are various types, from those that utilize the entire surface like a truck to those with a single point. Wrapping technology is also evolving, and printing and construction technology that matches the shape of the body has been established.
Using such wrapping technology, it may be possible to run self-driving cars as advertising cars and earn advertising expenses. If you modify the car audio, etc., it seems that you can also stream the sound moderately.
In addition, if it is an automatic driving car, it is also attractive that it is easy to secure advertising space because conventional window space can be effectively used.
Autonomous driving cars that can also be used for manual use can also be considered as a display window as a future technology. It is a normal window during manual driving, but if a new solution to replace the internal and external display is created during automatic driving, it will be possible to display advertisements outside the vehicle as digital signage.
There is also potential for growth in businesses such as matching platforms that connect owners and advertisers and businesses that create content.
If there is Autonomous Driving technology that can freely travel within a certain area, it will be possible to use it as an Autonomous Driving Taxi. In private self-driving cars, it is an image of a ride-sharing service.
Such a concept has been launched by Tesla and others. In 2019, Elon Musk, the CEO of the company, announced plans to mass-produce private self-driving cars, as well as the idea of earning fares for owners themselves by allocating the waiting time of private cars to dispatch services.
The vehicle is a lease contract, and by providing services under the dispatch platform "Tesla Network", it is a concrete concept that both the owner and Tesla receive fare income.
In the future, software and platforms that enable taxi services with self-driving cars will appear, and it seems likely that it will grow as a new business. Similarly, the development of self-driving car sharing as a C2C service is also conceivable.
[Reference] Regarding Tesla's robotaxi concept, see "What is a robotaxi? Unmanned with autonomous driving technology, Tesla enters".
In C2C, there seems to be a way to use self-driving self-driving cars like "order hearers". For example, it is an agent for the delivery of packages between individuals. It receives a delivery request through a matching platform and autonomously travels from the shipper to the destination. The trunk space and other areas are designed as delivery lockers, and users can open and close them with a digital key.
If you apply this mechanism, it can also be used for B2C shopping agency. In the image of adding self-driving delivery as an option of the shopping agency platform, the owner registers in advance the time zone when the car can be used for delivery.
If the platform user selects automated driving delivery when ordering, an automated driving vehicle will visit the retail store, and the clerk who picked up the product in advance will load the product.
It may be possible to provide a roadside service as a "help car" in case of traffic troubles. In the event of a vehicle trouble such as a dead battery, we will immediately rush to your request and provide an unmanned service. Although it is necessary for the requested driver to do some work, it may be possible to jump start with a dead battery or perform simple towing.
Owners who do not normally drive manually and enjoy leisurely transportation with autonomous driving can make the interior of the car more comfortable by remodeling it into a relaxing space. You should pursue comfortable movement.
The relaxing interior of the car can give passengers a sense of quality as an autonomous driving taxi, but if applied, it can also be a mobile hotel.
Sleeping specifications have been embodied in the self-driving concept car that Volvo Cars announced in the past, and it is by no means an eyebrow. In addition to hourly breaks, if the waiting state continues for a long time, it seems possible to rent out in units of one night like a hotel.
If the automated driving system covers long-distance travel, it is conceivable to stimulate new demand as a hotel that also serves as a travel.
[Reference] For Volvo Cars' efforts, see also "Volvo Announces Fully Autonomous Driving Concept Car 360c 'Futon Belt' Instead of Seat Belt".
Although there seems to be a lot to be said about it, if we apply the idea of advertising cars, we can open the way to use it as an election campaign car, a so-called election car. come.
An unmanned election car chants the name of a candidate and moves efficiently and effectively through the constituency. It is also possible to install a function that detects cheers from voters along the road and automatically responds with "Thank you!"
There are quite a few voices saying that the election car, which is an analog election method enacted in the Showa era, is "a waste of tax money" and "noisy", but there are also experimental results that conclude that it has a certain vote-collecting effect. It's true.
Introducing state-of-the-art technology to this analog election campaign seems to be a kind of antithesis, but it may be possible to earn votes even if you can't earn money.
In the future, it may be possible to sell various data collected while driving while driving around the city for purposes such as advertising cars and self-driving taxis. unknown.
The data acquired by sensors such as the on-board camera and LiDAR can be used to create and update high-precision 3D maps if processed. In addition, traffic information such as congestion, accidents, and fallen objects is an effective means of knowing real-time road conditions.
In addition, it is possible to read the signboards of gas stations, parking lots, retail stores, restaurants, etc. along the road, and convert gasoline prices, parking lot vacancy information, special sale information, store opening information, etc. into data.
This kind of money-earning is not only for business-only self-driving cars, but there is a possibility that demand will increase with the realization of self-driving cars for private use. . Autonomous driving technology makes effective use of the waiting time of a private car.
According to a report released by the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation in 2017, the weighted average driving time per day is 1.3 hours, the median is 0.9 hours, and the mode is 0.4 hours. there is The time that I use my private car is short, and most of the time it is in a standby state.
In order to take advantage of this private car waiting time in conventional manually operated cars, the existence of other drivers, such as C2C car sharing services, is indispensable.
However, if a self-driving car is capable of unmanned driving, this premise will be broken, opening the way to various uses. It seems possible that side jobs that make effective use of this waiting time and earn money for business purposes will become standard in the future.
[Reference] Regarding the driving time of a car, see "Average driving time is 80 minutes per person, what will you do instead if it becomes automatic driving?"
It is a waste not only for self-driving cars purchased for business purposes, but also for self-driving self-driving cars. If it is possible to make effective use of waiting time with automated driving technology and earn even a little money, it will be possible to compensate for the high initial cost.
It is true that there are many issues such as legal regulations and security issues, but depending on the idea, there is also the possibility of generating tremendous profits. The self-driving business will not only be limited to certain industries, but will become a familiar presence that everyone can get involved in.
[Reference] As a related article, see "What is Autonomous Driving? Thorough summary of technology, development companies, laws, etc.!"