Lyft联合创始人警告汽车行业

齐默说，已经到了围绕人而不是汽车来重塑城市的时候了。

是时候了：该围绕人，而不是汽车来重塑城市！最近，打车服务供应商Lyft联合创始人约翰•齐默向众多汽车和科技企业高层发出了挑战。

汽车厂商的业务当然是制造和销售汽车，但齐默看到了一个机会，而且是一个10年前看来还不可能的机会。

在Connected Car Expo大会、也就是洛杉矶车展开幕式上发表主题演讲前，齐默接受了《财富》杂志的采访。他说：“对于新一代人来说，汽车界需要用新的方式来对待汽车，因为这一代人并不重视汽车的所有权。我觉得我们城市的未来（我随后就会谈到这个问题），我们所有这些公司的未来真的取决于对待汽车的全新方式。”

齐默本身并非汽车业界人士。但Lyft要依靠轿车和卡车，而今还要依靠驾驶这些车辆的人。

成立于2012年的Lyft目前估值达到25亿美元。在《财富》的独角兽公司排行中，也就是价值达到或超过10亿美元、前途光明的初创企业名单上，它排在第42位。Lyft的最初产品是一款把驾驶者和乘车人联系在一起的App。

2015年，该公司将业务延伸到了拼车领域，推出了作为公共交通替代渠道的Lyft Line服务。2015年9月，Lyft宣布和滴，滴快的结为合作伙伴，这家来自中国的打车服务公司向Lyft投入了1亿美元资金。

如果没有汽车，Lyft就没什么生意可做。但齐默相信，城市以汽车为中心的时代即将结束。

他说：“这一代人更看重手机的移动性，而不是只在4%的时间里才会用到的资产。这对汽车行业来说是个警示，它表明世界正在发生改变，而且我们将共同迎接一个千载难逢的机会，从而围绕人而不是汽车重新设计我们的城市。”

“进入城市的人越来越多，交通越发拥堵。城市人口已经是原来的两倍，今后还会再翻一番。我们不能一直这样下去。修的路越多，车流量就越大。我们需要从新的角度来考虑这个问题。”

齐默认为，车辆是硬件，Lyft则是操作系统。这样的看法暗示了这家公司的发展方向。比方说，Lyft会不会在某一天和汽车厂商共同经营自动驾驶汽车租赁业务呢？

齐默说：“我们的系统里一直都要有硬件，这对乘客的体验非常重要。因此，今后要谈到的一大问题，也是要向听众提出的一个问题是我们怎样进行协作？我想这方面还没有定论。”

汽车厂商方面几乎看不到举棋不定的迹象，而且似乎也不需要Lyft这样的合作伙伴。一些厂商仍在因美国月度汽车销量打破纪录而沾沾自喜。但齐默坚持认为，汽车行业正在走下坡路，至少是正在改变，销量上升只是短暂反弹而已。他指出，80后、90后以及更年轻的人群并不像之前的几代人那样看重汽车。

齐默还说，包括自动驾驶在内，科技的进步已经带来了一个独一无二的机会。

“如果能预见到未来，这对汽车行业来说就可能是一个很棒的机会。”齐默还介绍说，目前Lyft每周为逾100万人次提供打车服务。

虽然气氛有些紧张，而且近期的强劲销售数字带来了一丝否定意味，但齐默指出，一些汽车厂商知道今后会出现什么样的情况。Lyft和汽车制造商有些关系。福特家族的比尔•福特就是Lyft的投资人之一，Lyft还在和多名汽车厂商高层进行会谈。

齐默说：“总的来说我们的对话具有建设性，但我觉得双方的运行步调不同。我们认为这种情况将很快出现，而且希望所有人都采取行动，共同为之付出努力。我想他们仍在考虑大家要怎样进行合作。”

汽车技术领域中的其他成员认为，传统汽车厂商正在朝着更全面、更现代化的方向转移。

联网汽车服务公司Airbiquity首席收入官大卫•贾姆帕说：“在这方面，这些公司的推进节奏将体现出它们的历史和目前的经营模式。新出现的企业必然很有想法，而且这些想法可能有颠覆性。其中一些手握大量现金来保障他们的想法落地，它们带来的压力将成为催化剂，进而推动今后的竞争。”

汽车厂商则表示，它们已经投资于多个着眼于未来城市交通的项目。举例来说，据福特汽车GoDrive项目负责人艾丽西娅•阿吉乌斯介绍，该公司目前正在实施25个移动性项目。GoDrive是福特2014年在伦敦启动的按需车辆共享试验项目。

阿吉乌斯说：“这个领域的哲学已经有了变化，而且将继续发生改变。人们已经意识到，在人口稠密的城市里，根本做不到人人都有车。但人们在一定情况下依然需要用车。对于这些无法拥有私家车的人，我们希望让他们得到使用车辆的机会。”

译者：Charlie

校对：詹妮

It’s time to shape cities around people not cars, Zimmer says.

John Zimmer, co-founder of ride-hailing service Lyft,looks at out at a sea of automotive and tech executivesand issue a challenge: It’s time to redesign cities around people, not cars.

Automakers are in the business of making and selling vehicles, after all. But Zimmer, sees an opportunity that didn’t seem possible a decade ago.

“A new approach to cars in the automobile world is needed for this new generation—a generation that doesn’t value car ownership,” Zimmer told Fortune ahead of his keynote speech at the Connected Car Expo, an auto tech conference that acts as an opener to the Los Angeles Auto Show. “I think that the future of our cities (which I’m going to talk about), the future of our companies really depends on a brand new approach to the automobile.”

Zimmer isn’t in the automotive industry, per se. But Lyft relies on cars and trucks—and for now, the people who drive them.

Lyft, founded in 2012, is valued at $2.5 billion, an amount that puts it at 42 on Fortune’s unicorn list of high-flying startups valued at $1 billion or more. The company started by creating an app that connects drivers and riders.

It expanded its service last year with Lyft Line, a carpooling service that provides an alternative to public transit. In September, Lyft announced a partnership with DidiKuaidi, a China-based ride-hailing service that invested $100 million in the company.

Without cars, Lyft doesn’t have much of a business. Still, Zimmer believes the era of car-centric cities is ending.

“This is a generation that values the mobility of their cell phone more than ownership of an asset they use 4% of the time,” Zimmer says. “This is a wake up call to the auto industry that the world is changing and together we have this once in a lifetime opportunity to redesign our cities around people instead of cars.”

“More people are moving into cities and traffic is getting worse—it’s doubled and it’s going to double again. We cannot keep going down this path. When you build more roads, you get more traffic. We need a new way of thinking about this.”

Zimmer sees cars as the hardware and Lyft as an operating system—a viewpoint that offers a hint at where the company is headed. Could Lyft someday partner with an automaker to provide a fleet of self-driving cars, for example?

“We’re always going to have hardware in the system, and it’s very important to the experience that the passenger has,” Zimmer says. “And so, in the future one of the big questions in the talk and one of the big questions for the audience is how do we work together? I think that’s still being decided.”

Automakers hardly seem to be struggling or in need of a partner like Lyft. Several are still basking in the success of record monthly U.S. sales. But Zimmer insists this is a short-term blip on an otherwise downward, or at least changing, trend. Millennials and those younger than them don’t value cars as much as previous generations, Zimmer says.

Advances in technology involving autonomous driving has created a unique opportunity, he added.

“This can be fantastic for the auto industry if they see the future before it happens,” says Zimmer, who notes that Lyft is now providing well over 1 million rides weekly.

And while there is some tension and a bit of denial because of recent strong sales numbers, Zimmer says some automakers understand what’s coming. Lyft has ties to car companies—Bill Ford of the Ford auto family is an investor—and has had multiple and ongoing discussions with automotive executives.

“It’s generally been a productive conversation, but I think we’re operating at different paces,” he says. “We see this happening fast and we want everyone to move and work on it together. I think they’re still trying to figure out how we all work together.”

Others in the auto-tech space see traditional automakers shifting towards a broader, more modern approach.

“But they’re going to do it at a rate and pace that reflects where they’re coming from and their current business models,” says David Jumpa, chief revenue officer of connected car services company Airbiquity. “The newcomers will definitely have big ideas with potential for disruption, some will have large cash hoards to fund their efforts, and the pressure they create will serve as a catalyst to nudge the scrum forward.”

The automakers themselves say they’re already investing in a variety of projects that focus on the future of how people move in and around cities. For example, Ford Motor Co. has about 25 different mobility projects going on right now, according to Alicia Agius, project lead of GoDrive, an on-demand car-sharing pilot the company launched last year in London.

“The philosophy has changed and is continuing to change,” Agius says. “There’s a realization in these densely urban cities that it’s just simply not practical for everyone to own a car. And yet people still have a need for cars in certain circumstances. We want to give those people, living in situations where ownership isn’t an option, the opportunity and access to a car.”