The Car You Just Bought Might Be The Last One You’ll Own

When people read about the future of transportation, they’re almost always assumed to be talking about big cities — namely the ones on the coasts.

But what’s often overlooked is the impact technology will have for transportation in rural areas.

Sterling, Illinois, where I grew up, has a year-round population of around 15,000. It’s greatest claim to fame? Terry Brooks happened to be born there. It is also the home of Wahl Clippers, the best clippers in the world.

It is located two-and-a-half hours from O’Hare Airport. (One local drove folks back and forth to the airport, charging $50 each way.)

Everything is so spread out that traveling forty miles to go to CostCo is no big deal. A car is essential for getting around.

When I was sixteen, my mom gave me car keys as a gift — mostly so she wouldn’t have to shuttle me around anymore.

Small towns just don’t have the population to support the same investment and funding for public transportation as bigger cities, so everything revolves around personal car ownership.

But things have changed since the advent of Lyft and Uber.

Instead of an average of three cars per household in rural areas, people are downsizing to just two cars. Rural USA doesn’t have the density to copy the public transportation options of Europe. And trains aren’t convenient for sparse populations.

All of that will be changing.

Instead of high-speed rail, we are going to have high-speed autonomous vehicles and car-sharing systems. And if you’re reading this after having just bought a car, don’t worry — once you pay off that one off, you’ll never have to buy another one again.

1. New Transportation Models Are Forming Around Cars

Folks living in urban and suburban centers are already shifting away from buying a second car in order to get around.

They’re cutting down to one-car households. Taking public transit. Using a rideshare like Uber Pool or Lyft Line.

They’re using other modes of shared transportation — bikes and scooters being the latest trend.

These alternative transportation options can make car ownership multi-use and multi-generational.

For example, an autonomous car could take one person to work and then come back to drop someone else off right after. The car could then be used to make money by offering ride-sharing services until it is time to return the owner back home from work.

It will be possible for a car to bring additional income into a household, rather than simply sitting parked during the work day.

This isn’t only an opportunity for families in urban centers.

Remember: Lyft and Uber have market penetration in small towns all across the country.

Once autonomous driving becomes available, those same Uber and Lyft services will be little minibuses, making it easier for the differently-abled and elderly to get around their rural homes.

2. Shared Mobility Is Cheaper

In addition to changing the way we use transportation (and creating new opportunities for additional income), shared ride and car models are also cheaper.

Today, the average American spends $8,900 a year on their car. Which is insane. Comparatively, for folks from Sterling, IL, their mortgage payment is only $600 a month.

This means car payments are higher than mortgages.

And they’re paying that much money each year for a vehicle that was most likely parked for the majority of the year. The average American only drives their car 4% of the year — just 260 hours in total.

Because of this, entire city plans have been created with massive allowances for parking lots, instead of planning where to put a church or a city hall.

And despite all the effort and planning, those parking lots sit empty a lot of the time.

When a town or city shifts to mostly using shared transportation models, not only will individuals save nearly $9,000 a year, but they open up prime real estate. What used to be parking lots could be repurposed for improved development and growth.

Think of all the affordable housing units this could create.

3. The Landscape Is Changing

Like any major technological innovation, autonomous vehicles, with full adoption, have the ability to completely change the physical landscape of our towns and cities.

A lot of municipalities are struggling, if not actually going bankrupt, and they need to find ways to bring in more money.

When you include parking lots, roads, and other spaces reserved only for cars, you find that we really have “paved paradise to put up a parking lot.”

In fact, there are an average of four parking spots for every car in a city, meaning that three of them are empty at any given time. With all those parking spots sitting empty, it’s hard not to think of all the possibilities should they become obsolete.

Not to mention autonomous vehicles are coming.

It’s time to start having a conversation around what to do with all of this extra space. Most experts think that autonomous technology and ride-sharing will mean that we will need less than 25% of the cars we have now to meet everyone’s needs.

We’re entering an exciting time, both for technological advances and for coming generations. For young people — Generation Z, for example — to adopt these new opportunities, we have to free them first from the expectations of even owning a car.

When I was growing up, folks were loyal to car brands.

Today, Americans are just trying to find the cheapest way to get to work, which still costs Americans over a trillion dollars per year. But autonomous vehicles should be saving half that cost as soon as they hit the streets.

Which brings us to an important question: What would you do with your share of $500 billion back in your pocket?