Uber opened the week by stating that it is joining the Global Public Transportation Association to gain better mobility in all the sites it operates in around the world. They also stated it is joining the International Association of Public Transportation (UITP) to gain better public transportation interconnectivity in all the sites it operates in around the world.
Uber's head of Transportation Policy, Andrew Salzberg, stated that the executive agreed with his view to align the company with public transportation authorities, this action would fix old issues and build up trust between Uber and the future of public transport as viewed by the various member associations.
One of the main issues Uber faced recently was the removal of their license to operate in London by the Transport of London (TfL) in September this year. The TfL is a member of the UITP, which goes to explain why the sudden interest of Uber to become a friend of global public transportation.
Actually, our take is that the new executive is implementing the "if you can't beat them join them" policy, which will lull any "enemies" from banding together to harm Uber's continual growth. It is, in fact, the only way to go about this business since Uber will have to live within the constraints of the current global transportation community until their AV project goes viral. Once AV's become the new mode of transportation, Uber will (if it is still around) be a world leader.
When putting aside personal opinion and looking at the initiative objectively, we get very good signals from both sides. The Secretary general of the UITP, Alain Flausch stated that Uber's change in association with global and national associations shows that they understand the importance of joining hands and working together. T also means that passengers will be able to enjoy a continuous ride experience from private to public and public to private.
Uber is going to instigate a number of training sessions together with the UITP to research the importance of the first and last mile issues that face human logistics. The way a person reaches public transport to the way a person uses public transport together with private transport is the main issue here. This initiative will also give Uber access to global public transportation issues that it did not have access to before, as well as close old issues that were harming them, such as the London affair.
Both Uber and the UITP recognize the need to reduce congestion, and one of the ways to do so is to provide a comprehensive solution that takes a person to and from their destination as quickly and as comfortable as possible. The combination of public and private will assure that in the future, less private cars will block up the roads allowing for a more accessible public transportation system.
We wish to state that Uber's AV will in effect be a form of "Private-Public" transport, for once the driver is removed from the equation, the need for "bus" companies will be replaced with AV bus companies, and this is the area that Uber is excelling in.