The California Air Resources Board presented an ambitious proposal in the last few days that would put a limit on the emissions of the vehicles that are used for shared travel applications like Uber and Lyft, Cabling reports. And although these companies have a infamously tumultuous story With labor regulators in their home state, they seem significantly more receptive to this drive to go green than they are enough. compensate your workforce.
The proposal would require that 60% percent of the miles traveled by Uber and Lyft vehicles be in electric vehicles by 2030. To achieve this lofty goal, the board estimates that about a third of the shared-ride vehicles would need to be electric.
That is a difficult task, to put it mildly. In 2018Electric vehicles only accounted for 1% of the miles traveled for ride-sharing services (just 59% more to go!). In its proposal, the board suggested that companies like Uber and Lyft should offer incentives for their contractors to make the switch, and in particular target their highest-mileage drivers.
Lyft which at the beginning of this year Committed to converting all of its drivers’ vehicles to electric by 2030, welcomed the stricter regulation.
G / O Media may receive a commission
“We believe that CARB should continue to be aggressive,” Sam Arons, the company’s chief sustainability officer, told Aired, using the board’s acronym.
Lyft aims to collaborate with automakers and invest more in its driver rental program, Express Drive, in an effort to reach that 60% target, Arons continued. He said that, according to Lyft’s research, drivers who rent their vehicles from third-party rental companies drive more miles (probably because they have to earn enough to keep those rental costs from eating into their already low markup). So if Lyft negotiates a deal with automakers to sell electric vehicles to rental companies at a reduced cost, the company argues that It is a victory for all involved.
Well, except for Lyft drivers. They just live to be fucked for another day.
While Uber has made no similar commitment to electric vehicles, a company spokesperson told Wired that Uber “looks forward to continuing to commit to CARB” and that it “supports the California Clean Mileage Standard as the first standard for its performance based type. ”
The states Clean Miles Standard It aims to present and implement a new set of rules for transportation companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions even as transportation technology evolves.
Obviously, the more cars that go electric, the better, but it’s actually hard to measure the exact percentage of air pollutant emissions that Uber and Lyft vehicles contribute every day. A scientific study estimated that ridesharing can cause approximately 69% more pollution on average than he Low-carbon commuting that they are displacing, such as riding a bus, biking, or walking.
State regulators should discuss the conversion of the ridesharing industry to electricity in January 2021. Hopefully, the world will be a little less than a raging garbage fire by then. One can wait, anyway.
[[[[Cabling]
.
