Uber’s plan to get more people into fewer cars. Uber didn’t start out with grand ambitions to cut congestion and pollution. But as the company took off, co-founder Travis Kalanick wondered if there was a way to get people using Uber along the same routes to share rides, reducing costs and carbon footprint along the way. The result: uberPOOL, the company’s carpooling service, which in its first eight months took 7.9 million miles off the roads and 1,400 metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the air in Los Angeles. Now, Kalanick says carpooling could work for commuters in the suburbs, too. “With the technology in our pockets today, and a little smart regulation,” he says, “we can turn every car into a shared car, and we can reclaim our cities starting today.”
TED Speaker
Travis Kalanick
Why you should listen
In 2010, entrepreneur and angel investor Travis Kalanick, with his co-founder Garrett Camp, took a niche product — Uber — and turned it into a global platform that has transformed the way we move around the world.
In 68 countries and 360 cities, riders can push a button and get a ride, and drivers have a flexible, independent way to make money. With big investments in China, India, carpooling, self-driving cars and logistics, Uber’s future promises to be as headline-grabbing as its past, continuing to reinvent urban transportation as we know it.
What others say
“Kalanick’s idea of progress is simple and sweeping: transportation as ubiquitous and reliable as running water, everywhere, for everyone. And as part of that vision, he expects to change the way cities operate.” — TIME, December 9, 2015
http://www.ted.com/talks/travis_kalanick_uber_s_plan_to_get_more_people_into_fewer_cars