From free-market upstarts to incumbent cronies?

It’s only a matter of time before American roads are filled with self-driving cars. In fact, it is quite likely that within the next decade or so, all the vehicles we see on the road will be self-driving, making the cars of today a thing of the past.

Already, the race to develop these vehicles is well underway, as major companies from Volvo to Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google, are competing to have the first line of autonomous cars to obtain government approval.

While there is no denying the impact these cars of the future will have on the way Americans drive, some ridesharing companies would like to take from consumers the decision about the shape of this future. And this is not sitting well with free-market advocates who have spent years defending companies like Lyft and Uber.  

Fighting the Good Fight

Since its inception, the ridesharing industry has faced enormous opposition from established cab companies. The latter enjoyed a nearly 80-year monopoly over the taxi sector, as there was simply no better way to operate, and thus no real competition. But the widespread use of smartphones and other technologies has made hailing a cab in the traditional sense inconvenient and outdated.

But instead of responding appropriately to this new competition, the cab industry utilized its connections with local governments in an attempt to regulate ridesharing out of existence. And these cab cronies enjoyed moderate success on this front.

Luckily, the demand for ridesharing was too sizeable to ignore. Consumers preferred the sharing economy to the old way of doing things. And this is largely why the ridesharing sector was able to survive a “David and Goliath” battle. But now, instead of seeking to understand what the consumers of the near future might actually want, Uber, Lyft, and others are seeking to force a new model of car ownership on the American public. And it is one that is simply incompatible with the free market principles that have allowed these companies to achieve success in the first place.

A Murky Proposal

Imagine a world where private ownership of self-driving automobiles is prohibited. If Uber, Lyft, and Zipcar get their way, this might be a reality we soon have to face. In a document entitled, “Shared Mobility Principles for Sustainable Cities,” many major players in the ridesharing sector have laid out their vision for the future of self-driving cars.

While the proposal itself merely spells out the long-term goals of multiple private organizations, its implementations reek of government interference. The first point, for example, states: