Caspar Hanselaar

Readily available personal mobility, using bicycles, motorcycles, cars, public transport and any other form imaginable, is essential to allow people to attain their potential. This is at odds with the stark reality that we need to reduce our emissions drastically to attain a sustainable way of living together on this little spaceship called Earth. Moving to an electric car will not be enough: more and more people will be looking to buy vehicles for personal and professional use around the globe, thereby incurring significant emissions in production of these vehicles. However, some will stay behind and lack the funds to purchase these vehicles, removing some of their opportunities to attain their potential in life. To me, creating a fully autonomous and self-driving Mobility-As-A-Service (MAAS) solution solves this conundrum: by being both convenient and affordable, such a service removes a barrier to entry for personal transportation, as initial purchase costs are removed. Next self-driving MAAS will reduce the need for car (or second car) ownership for a large number of people, greatly reducing the emissions connected to vehicle production. I believe this development will prove very fruitful for our society as a whole, allowing people and companies to explore new possibilities as they are revealed.