The Future of Driving | Years of Living Dangerously

TY BURRELL: Now that I've learned self-driving cars aren't that far off, what about ride sharing? Are companies like Lyft and Uber going to be part of the solution? How you doing? All right? What are the odds? You are John Zimmer, President of Lyft. You got it. Can you drive? Yeah, I think I got this. You don't sound very confident. I'm going to get in anyway. All right, where do you want to go to?

TY BURRELL: Right here is great. [laughter] This is as far as I'm going. Thanks, buddy.

JOHN ZIMMER: Yeah.

TY BURRELL: Well, I'm on a mission to learn about the future of cars. And I have two kids. I'm very concerned about their future and about carbon emissions. How much does Lyft think about that kind of stuff?

JOHN ZIMMER: That was one of the original reasons why we wanted to do this. The environmental toll of having just over one person in every car is just horrible.

TY BURRELL: How pie in the sky is a driverless city?

JOHN ZIMMER: Yeah, it's very real. It's the only way we can double population in our old cities. Right. Imagine this experience right now with no cars parked in a city, maybe half as many roads because the rides themselves are more efficient. The cost will come down to the point where you can get a ride anywhere for under $5. So it's like the ultimate form of public transportation door-to-door. When you have autonomous, the economics work out that way.

JOHN ZIMMER: It feels like one of those moments in history where we can either move forward in the right way or we can move forward in the wrong way because it's such a crucial turning point.

JOHN ZIMMER: Mm-hmm. The ultimate outcome should be clean fuel and should be autonomous and have the opportunity for people to share those autonomous rides. That is a big win. And electric is a big part of that.