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Lyft co-founder and president John Zimmer has revealed he believes that by 2021 a “majority” of rides on the car sharing service will be in autonomous vehicles.
The car hailing app is one of the biggest services of its kind and a major rival to Uber – which is already testing driverless cars in the US.
Zimmer added that he believed the rise of autonomous and driverless vehicles will mean the end of personal car ownership in cities in the US by 2025.
As part of a 14-page manifesto on the subject that he published online, Zimmer said as car ownership drops, streets and car parks will become obsolete and be transformed into housing and open spaces.
He also outlined how autonomous vehicles will move beyond just driverless cars to get you home, instead becoming hubs for people to work and be entertained.
“The end of private car ownership means we’ll have far fewer cars sitting parked and empty,” he said.
“And that means we’ll have the chance to redesign our entire urban fabric. Cities of the future must be built around people, not vehicles. They should be defined by communities and connections, not pavement and parking spots. They need common spaces where culture can thrive — and where new ideas can be shared in the very places where cars previously stood parked and empty.”
He also told The Verge that Lyft will then look to offer a range of different vehicle types based on whether you want to work, watch movies with friends or are heading out on a Saturday night.
As well as Uber’s public tests in Pittsburgh of driverless cars, Google is also currently working on the technology, while Ford has also confirmed its intentions to start selling driverless cars by 2025.
