Fully autonomous electric vehicles are projected to hit the streets by 2020, which will positively impact ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, MarketWatch reported, citing BP’s chief economist Spencer Dale.
The cost of self-driving cars will be too expensive for normal people at first and instead commercial firms will own it, Dale highlighted.
Uber had previously announced it plans to buy 24,000 self-driving cars from Volvo between 2019 and 2021.
“The vast majority of these [cars] will be purchased by commercial fleets offering mobility services, so think Uber or Lyft,” Dale said at the International Petroleum Week conference in London.
“The potential here is that it leads to a significant fall in the cost. We [BP] estimate that could reduce the cost of that type of service by around 40% or 50%,” he continued.
The energy expert further noted that the number of kilometers traveled by fully autonomous mobility-service cars is expected to climb by 2030.