In part two of our two-part interview with LA CoMotion Chairman, John Rossant, we learn of exciting things to come by way of vast mobility improvements. With the Los Angeles Olympics slated for 2028, what will transportation in LA look like? Driverless taxis shuttling through zero traffic congestion? Driverless flying taxis brought to us by a joint Uber/NASA venture – really? Listen to find out! ***Transcript*** Recording date – November 19, 2017 John Rossant: What's so fascinating about this sector is exactly how fast moving it now is becoming. On the regulatory side things are moving quickly too. There won't be any more traffic jams in 2028. I can assure you. You’ll order a flying driverless taxi from the Uber/NASA joint venture called Uber Air Taxis. I completely agree with Mayor Garcetti when he says that LA will be the world capital of transportation technology. And I think that LA CoMotion can be what help that vision along. But it can also be the place where the industry meets once a year. That's really why we're investing in this. It can be very, very important for LA and for the world, and for this emerging ecosystem globally around mobility. Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility in the automotive capital of the United States, Southern California. I’m Tom Smith and in this episode we continue my discussion with John Rossant. John is the founder of New Cities, an international non-profit organization that focuses on improving life in cities around the world. New Cities recently hosted a 4-day event all about the future of mobility. LA CoMotion took place right here in the Los Angeles Arts District. Some very bold and exciting predictions were made about how we’ll be getting around LA in the near future. What follows is the second half of my discussion with John. So that's here in the United States and you have a global perspective. But before we get to the global and maybe you can tie that in, what's changed? Because there was electric cars back when we were figuring out if it was going to be, you know, a Ford or a car company that didn't make it. And then fast... and so that's...it was back to the beginning of cars. But then fast forward to just a few years ago there was all the commotion about the film who killed the electric car. Right? And then we fast forward to the economic collapse. And I remember paying $5 a gallon for gas here in LA. And of course you know I had two V8 vehicles that I was driving that were just guzzlers. So leading up to a few things have changed. But in your perspective, what's changed that is allowing this vast clip that were experiencing? John: Yeah, yeah. I think it's a bunch of things happening at the same time. One is certainly technology. So whether it's battery technology... I mean, you know, electric cars are now very competitive even without massive subsidies. I mean we've gotten, you know, the efficiency down the range is amazing. I mean forget Tesla 300 or 350 miles. I mean the new Chevy Volt. Amazing, wonderful car and it's got 250, 260 mile range at a very, very, very competitive price. It's a joy to ride. So you have technology and then you have of course, you know, autonomous vehicle technologies suddenly real because of the I.T. revolution. You have the.... a very different approach of millennials. And then after millennials Generation Z etc. to ownership, to traveling, to having a driver's license, the cost of car ownership is very high here. And then you have sort of Uber and Lyft bursting onto the scene, and you know gee maybe it makes sense not to have a car but when you need to go across the city, you use an Uber or Lyft. You use your bike or you use other means. Use public transportation. So people are...you know my 12 year old kid for example.
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