In my Module 2 innovation proposal, I wrote about Uber diversifying its application to allow scheduled pickups. Despite the implications regarding its potential success proving to be accurate, more thorough research uncovered that this idea was not new to the market (Kieu et al., 2020). Moreover, Uber itself has already adopted the scheduled pickup service provision (Srinivas et al., 2021). Consequently, there is a need for a new innovation proposal not covered in my previous brief.
Currently, several pieces of research have drawn my attention to the issue of traffic congestion and possible solutions for it. According to Afrin and Yodo (2020), traffic congestion is most commonly referred to as “the state of traffic flow when the travel demand exceeds road capacity” (p. 1). This issue belongs among other increasing concerns about energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and road safety in the framework of so-called sustainable mobility (Li et al., 2021). As one of its facets, car-sharing practices have the most significant potential to address the mentioned problems. Shared car ownership reduces the overall number of cars involved in the traffic, implying less congestion and consequent air pollution (Li et al., 2021). In addition, the adoption of electric vehicles can further aid in sustainable car-sharing efforts.
With this in mind, my innovation proposal for Uber, Inc. would be to join among the first adopters of a sustainable mobility framework. This decision aligns with modern societal trends, which increases its future economic potential. In this context, in order to differentiate from competitors, Uber would have to make decisions not common in the market. According to Hill (2021), countries with totalitarian or authoritarian regimes that foster strong property rights and a market economy, such as China, serve as an appropriate places for innovation and economic growth. Meanwhile, according to Li et al. (2021), strong governmental control can, in many ways, boost the efficiency of car-sharing practices through access to driving and criminal records or personal credit systems. In light of these two notions, Uber can have a second chance in the Chinese transportation market if it attempts to cooperate with governmental institutions on car-sharing in particular and sustainable transportation initiatives as a whole.
References
Afrin, T., & Yodo, N. (2020). A survey of road traffic congestion measures towards a sustainable and resilient transportation system. Sustainability, 12(11), 1-23. Web.
Hill, C. W. L. (2021). International business: Competing in the global marketplace (13th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Kieu, L. M., Ou, Y., Truong, L. T., & Cai, C. (2020). A class-specific soft voting framework for customer booking prediction in on-demand transport. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 114, 377-390. Web.
Li, M., Zeng, Z., & Wang, Y. (2021). An innovative car sharing technological paradigm towards sustainable mobility. Journal of Cleaner Production, 288, 125626. Web.
Srinivas, R., Ankayarkanni, B., & Krishna, R. S. B. (2021). Uber related data analysis using machine learning. In 2021 5th International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Control Systems (ICICCS) (pp. 1148-1153). IEEE. Web.