SEATTLE, April 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- QuoteWizard, an online insurance comparison marketplace, today released a report on projected future costs for car ownership and ridesharing. https://quotewizard.com/news/posts/self-driving-cars-will-make-owning-a-car-unnecessary
By combining proprietary data with outside sources, QuoteWizard found that car ownership costs are dropping, while the price of ridesharing will drastically shrink with the introduction of driverless cars. Current trends show that relying solely on ridesharing will cost less than owning a car in 2027.
After using Uber and Lyft to commute every day for two months, we found that the average price of a rideshare trip is $19.89 in Seattle and $19.59 in Denver. By our data, travelling exclusively with Uber or Lyft for a year currently costs $13,963 in Seattle and $13,755 in Denver. Compare that to $8,469, the average cost to own a car in 2017 according to AAA.
With Uber CEO Dana Khosrowshahi recently stating that he expects his company to have self-driving cars in their ridesharing fleet by 2027, the cost of ridesharing is expected to decrease dramatically. Experts estimate a 35 cent per-mile fee for driverless rideshare vehicles, versus the current $1.35 per mile fee in Seattle and $1 per mile fee in Denver.
Based on our experiment, in 2027 autonomous ridesharing will cost $6,943 per year in Seattle and $5,679 in Denver, compared to an estimated car ownership cost of $7,598 per year.
Methodology
To establish Lyft and Uber rates, we had a Denver based employee and a Seattle based employee commute with rideshare for a month. We combined our rideshare rate data with AAA car ownership costs and estimated autonomous rideshare costs from experts.
About QuoteWizard
QuoteWizard (quotewizard.com) is an insurance comparison marketplace for consumers looking to save on insurance. QuoteWizard provides consumers with direct access to thousands of qualified agents in all 50 states, as well as major carriers, who offer personalized quotes and the opportunity to save up to 40% on auto, home, health, and life insurance. Agents and carriers, in turn, benefit from millions of highly qualified leads, calls and traffic to their site. Based in Seattle, QuoteWizard was founded in 2006.