When Uber first appeared, I experienced many innovations, but the greatest of them was freedom.
Without complicated procedures, and most importantly, the ability to get on and off anywhere — that was the real revolution of ride-sharing.
Unlike trains, there was no need to travel to a station; you could call a car to wherever you were. The convenience of that was an experience traditional taxis could never offer.
However, the disruptive convenience of ride-sharing inevitably clashed with the taxi industry. Perhaps as a result, many major facilities now designate specific pick-up and drop-off points, and the initial sense of freedom has been lost. In many cases, taxis occupy the more convenient spots. It’s likely a measure to protect the taxi industry, but as a user, it’s nothing short of disappointing.
It’s like if Uber Eats required you to pick up your food only from a hotel lobby — it would lose much of its appeal.
Right now, it’s as if commercial facilities and transport hubs are using ride-sharing infrastructure to create their own private stations. These are clearly separated from taxi stands, and a new kind of station is appearing every day. As long as there’s a road, they can be set up relatively easily, meaning that in urban planning, their number could grow indefinitely through private initiative.
Ride-sharing fares are higher than other public transport, so it’s not for everyone. It also can’t carry large numbers of people at once, making it unsuitable for major facilities. These are issues that building more ride-sharing stations won’t solve. But building a new train or bus station is something neither an individual nor a single company can easily do — it takes enormous budgets and years of time.
In the Tokyo Ginza area, where I’ve been based for the past few years, even taxis are restricted to certain boarding points depending on the time of day. I already consider that an inefficient station. On the other hand, I’ve recently seen more Waymo vehicles on the streets. If that’s the case, I wish they’d just turn those points into stations for autonomous vehicles.
And that’s when it hit me.
What will happen when autonomous taxis become more common?
What if autonomous taxis evolve into large, articulated buses like those in London?
That could create enormous value in the future — because it would actively leverage road infrastructure to intervene in the flow of people and goods. With the right approach, even areas far from expensive city centers could attract significant traffic and activity.
In other words, now is the time to start building ride-sharing stations. They don’t exist yet in ride-sharing–barren Japan, but future commercial facilities should absolutely include them.
Otherwise, such places will become locations where neither people, nor humanoid robots, nor drones will ever come close.