Disrupting the Car (with Horace Dediu)

Ride AI

This week’s episode of the Ride AI podcast is a mind-meld between automotive analyst Ed Niedermeyer and tech-innovation scholar Horace Dediu about why the car industry is ripe for disruption. Their conversation is a reflection on the transformative power of past innovations like computers and phones, and the need to imagine a better future for mobility. Together they discuss:

• The concept of unbundling the car for different trip types and purposes, similar to computing devices

• Observation that the world seeks to improve cars, but they are already highly optimized

• Critique of current approaches by companies like Tesla and Apple, which aim to fit new technologies into the existing car model

• Emphasis on the need for truly disruptive innovation in mobility, either through cheaper, more accessible options or new directions of competition

• Discussion on the potential for self-driving technology to transform mobility by enabling new experiences and connections

• Examinations of the challenges of building an EV that is both cheap and has extensive battery range

• Why investors are over-focused on cars as a platform at the expense of other autonomous driving use-cases, like agriculture, defense, and transit.

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