Going For A Ride
Many people think that the field of marketing is only about sales and advertising. Little do they realize all of the many nuances and facets of this critical task. Sales and advertising are near the end of the marketing process, the points of contact between a seller and potential buyer. Like some people describe their relationships on social media, “It’s complicated.”
And sometimes marketing isn’t selling products, services, or even experiences, but instead an idea. You know, like the idea of hopping a cab in San Francisco and a growing number of US cities, and the car is driverless. Regulators just gave the green light to autonomous taxis in the City by the Bay 24/7, and expect the dominos to start falling elsewhere as well.
At the moment, Alphabet-owned Waymo and General Motors-owned Cruise are the only two players, their cars bedecked with an array of cameras and sensors. The list of fears and complaints runs long, ranging from overall safety of riders and anyone else who might be in the path of this car (like other vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians), to stopping dead in the middle of the road and clogging traffic, to undercutting legitimate cabbies and Uber drivers.
That’s a lot to overcome.Every time a Waymo or Cruise breaks downs, stops unexpectedly, or is involved in a crash, there are howls of disapproval. The funny thing, these things happen with motor vehicles driven by humans all the time, and they don’t generate anywhere near the amount of complaining.
The problem is that autonomous cars is a huge pill for many to swallow. Just like with e-commerce, and then subsequent radical changes like in-store kiosks, QR codes, Venmo, and anything else that disrupted the way things were always done, a car without a driver is an eyebrow-raiser. Why, you could almost say this technology is being shoved down our throats, this change is happening so fast.
Think about that for a minute. I’ll wait.
Now I admit to having one lingering fear of autonomous vehicles, and not so much a slow-moving taxi in San Francisco. It’s about control. In a standard taxi or Uber, you assume the human at least knows how to drive, and controls the vehicle. In a driverless vehicle, there is no such guarantee, and even more so if we were to suddenly start seeing scores of driverless cars zooming down the freeway at 75. It takes everything I’ve got to stay between the lines at 75, especially if there are other vehicles nearby. What would it feel like being a passenger in your own car—that’s even a stretch for some people—and no one is driving?
That’s a big yikes moment, but the technology is rapidly reaching the point of being ready to roll out to the masses. It’s not perfect, but neither are the human counterparts. See that paragraph above and read it again. We cut slack to the negligent humans, but not the machines.
Meanwhile, marketing folks have their work cut out for them in the years ahead. Like many other technological changes, as well as social and scientific, they are an affront to all we have known and held dear. They challenge our sensibilities. They force us to see the world in new ways.
It’s a wild ride, whether you’re in the back seat of a Waymo or Cruise, or just trying to stay alive amid the traffic of change.
Dr “Watch Out For Me” Gerlich
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