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June 9, 2017 12:00 AM

Amory Lovins on the future of personal mobility

Edmund G. Brown Jr., Sergey Brin — Google co-founder Sergey Brin gestures after riding in a driverless car with California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., left, and state Senator Alex Padilla, second from left, to a bill signing for driverless cars at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012.
Eric Risberg | AP 2012

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The transformation from horse-and-buggy to automobiles was nearly complete in a little more than a decade. How fast will the transition to robotic cars be?

Energy scientist Amory Lovins and others discuss the future of personal mobility. Nobody knows if it's a utopian vision or a dystopian vision.

Three important changes in the transportation business are pushing technology forward right now, said Lovins. Self-driving autonomous cars, which are already out there in test mode. Car sharing gaining popularity. And finally, the growing treatment of mobility as a service.

"Now those are starting to come together on your mobile device as public and private transport firms open up their coats so you can see where all the vehicles are and meld all of the offerings and pick the one you want," said Lovins.

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As these types of services become more popular the way we treat travel, car design and even street design is going to change with the trends.

Greg Dalton hosts the Climate One series at the Commonwealth Club of California. His guests are:

Amory Lovins, co-founder and chief scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute.

Emily Castor, director of transportation policy at Lyft.

Gerry Tierney, architect and associate principal at Perkins + Will.

To listen to their discussion, click the audio player above.

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