The clockspeed dilemma

“Moving me” started the explosion, a global phenomenon of 

mobility-on-demand.

Alongside of taxicab and traditional car rental services, we now have Uber, Lyft, 

Didi Kuaidi, Zipcar, Halo, and more. Bla Bla Car’s ride-sharing business moves 

Europeans from city to city in 19 countries. Moving people disrupts far more 

than traditional taxi and limousine services, however. In San Francisco, Uber 

has grown its revenue by more than $1 billion in five years, expanding a market 

and competing with not only taxi services but car rental agencies, parking lot 

owners, and vehicle replacement businesses.

Just as explosively, these innovators have extended themselves into other 

businesses: “moving my stuff.“

It used to be that delivery was a matter for traditional truck and bicycle services. 

The new players in mobility-on-demand are creating collateral businesses that 

threaten to disrupt the traditional competition. Audi, Amazon, and DHL have 

teamed to deliver belongings to the trunks of consumers’ cars. Instacart is 

delivering groceries to consumers’ doors within an hour of ordering them. 

Even UPS and FedEx may face serious competition in the future. Amazon is 

experimenting with drone delivery—seemingly laughable now, but look out if 

they get the cost down. For the auto industry, the effect is still uncertain, but 

the potential for reducing sales on delivery vehicles is nothing to dismiss.

And the mobility innovators aren’t stopping with delivery but extending services 

to “moving my car.”

RelayRides is building a market for renting out consumers’ idle vehicles. Valet 

services were once for rich people. Now Zirx acts like a virtual valet, parking 

and moving consumers’ cars as well as servicing them. Imagine the ability 

of consumers via an app to have someone show up at their door or their 

workplace and take their car for them. They no longer have to worry about 

parking. “Moving my car” innovations can easily lead to new unmet consumer 

needs, such as still more car-sharing that drives down car sales or changes their 

utilization.

The implications of mobility competition

We predict still more effects from the changing competition in mobility: more 

competition, more consumer adoption, more disruption, greater controversy, 

and, above all, a faster pace of innovation. 

The genie is out of its 

technological bottle: 

Things will only go faster. 

Innovators are making 

their presence known, 

and consumers are 

quickly recognizing they 

like this new flexibility 

and availability in their 

transportation options. 

 

– No doubt the intensity of 

competition will mean pricing 

will remain highly competitive. 

It will also spawn still more 

innovation: In response to Uber, 

New York City’s taxi services 

just announced their own taxi- 

hailing app, Halloo.

 

– With disruptions come political 

controversies. In New York, 

consumer demand for mobility-

on-demand cowed the mayor. 

When His Honor tried to restrict 

Uber services, consumer uproar 

made him retreat. Whatever the 

controversy, we believe the free 

market will ultimately prevail. 

We expect consumers are going 

to move from making marginal 

decisions to use mobility options—

an occasional ride here or there—

to utilizing mobility-on-demand 

consistently. Where mobility 

options have begun to flourish, the 

two-car model is cracking.

The clockspeed dilemma      21

© 2015 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with 

KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. The KPMG name, logo and “cutting through 

complexity” are registered trademarks or trademarks of KPMG International. NDPPS 404853

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New competitors in autonomy will power a still more 

accelerated pace for autonomous vehicles

Acceleration in autonomy

Those mobility-on-demand innovators also want to be 

autonomous: Uber recently announced it would buy self-

driving cars from Tesla when they become available. Uber’s 

ambition, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. Under 

the surface is a far-reaching commitment to autonomy 

innovations from players outside the auto industry who 

have enormous resources and the freedom to build 

autonomous vehicles without the platform constraints of 

OEMs. They are forcing an accelerated pace of change.

Of course, the auto industry has accelerated the pace of 

innovation on its own. In 2005, after more than 25 years of 

research, five Level 4 autonomous vehicles successfully 

completed the Great Challenge, a 150-mile course through 

the Mojave Desert. Flash forward 10 years: Ford has 

patented an autonomous car with reconfigurable seats. 

Continental is testing three highly autonomous vehicles. 

Mercedes Benz previewed a fully autonomous car at 

the 2015 car show, and Volvo will begin a trial of 100 

self-driving cars in 2017. Partial autonomy developments 

have also accelerated since 2000, and the commercial 

infrastructure of the industry is developing. Examples of 

it include Ford’s autonomous vehicle program, GM and 

Carnegie Mellon’s Autonomous Driving Collaboration 

Research Lab, Volkswagen and Stanford’s VAIL program, 

and Toyota’s recent investment in autonomy. That is 

extraordinary progress. 

But new competitors are rushing into the autonomy 

space, and they don’t have to contend with existing 

infrastructure—billions of dollars in fixed assets—as 

traditional automakers do. Freed of those platform 

constraints, these new players are moving fast. Since 

2009, Google’s self-driving cars have logged 1.7 million 

miles. Apple announced its Apple Car will appear in 

2019. Meanwhile, in partial autonomy, Tesla’s latest OTA 

update provides highway autopilot—no need for drivers 

to touch the brake, accelerator, or steering wheel when 

they are on freeways. And in commercial infrastructure, 

there’s Google’s Self-Driving Car Program and even Uber’s 

investment in autonomous research at the University 

of Arizona.

The arrival of new, aspiring automakers is not the only 

development of consequence for the auto industry. There 

are at least 17 companies outside the traditional ecosystem 

who have announced plans to invest and contribute 

research and products to support autonomous systems. 

Some are accomplished start-ups. Cruise Automation 

has already passed significant milestones in delivering 

technology that will enable cars to drive themselves. 

Whatever their offerings will be, these companies will 

significantly accelerate the knowledge base for autonomy. 

Collectively, these new entrants into the auto ecosystem 

are making substantial financial commitments to autonomy. 

The net result is clear: The efforts of these new 

competitors in autonomy will power a still more 

accelerated pace for autonomous vehicles, far faster 

than the pace at which the traditional auto industry has 

been operating.

The implications of changing competition in autonomy 

As the nontraditional competitors continue to surge into 

the autonomy space, we predict they will do more than 

push the speed of technological change the auto industry 

must follow. They will also upend after-markets and related 

markets. Once consumers see that autonomy makes 

people safer and drives down the cost of insurance and 

repairs, their demands will create further pressure to 

accelerate the rate of autonomous innovation.

22

© 2015 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International 

Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. The KPMG name, logo and “cutting through complexity” are registered 

trademarks or trademarks of KPMG International. NDPPS 404853

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