In an attempt to tempt users to ride public transportation one more time, LA has rolled out a pilot program developed to transport residents to and from 3 of the crowded Metro stations in the town. The local government of LA first declared its partnership with Via (ride-sharing platform) earlier in 2017. Now, the program is live and has begun providing on-demand & shared rides to serve the stations at El Monte, Artesia, and North Hollywood.
Users can call for a Via car using its app, which will match 3–6 riders going in the same direction and allocate them in the similar vehicle. As per media report, the pilot was made as a solution for the problems users face getting form one station to another. Owing to that last-mile hurdle, increasing number of people are selecting to ride Uber and akin services to reach to their destination rather than public transportation systems, since they are a lot more straightforward and convenient.
On a related note, the Public Utilities Commission of California earlier disclosed that Zoox (self-driving car startup) will be the first to offer service to users. It is joining a pilot initiative where it will provide free rides with a driver behind the wheels as a backup. It is not sure when the program will begin, even though Zoox has already claims about plans to roll out paid service by the end of 2020.
Zoox has already been performing internal experiments, but has not talked much about its plans. The firm probably will not be unaccompanied for long. Waymo has also applied for approvals to transport users on California streets, and just lately got acceptance for completely driverless trials (although without users). And when there are 62 firms who have self-driving license of some type in the state, the chances are that others will follow the same.
