ABSTRACT
Since the mid-2000s large technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area have superimposed a new ‘tech mobility’ over the existing transportation palimpsest of the metropolis. Fusing smart phone apps and nanotechnology with conventional buses and cars, companies such as Google and Uber have introduced distinctive configurations and flows of urban travel which to varying degrees are spreading, or have potential to spread, globally. Outfitted with wireless service, ample seating and legroom, laptop plug-ins, and accessed via employer-provided digital IDs and smart phones, privately run, third party-contracted ‘tech’ buses ply the freeways between San Francisco and Silicon Valley, transporting technology workers to huge suburban corporate campuses such as Apple (Cupertino), Facebook (Menlo Park) and Google (Mountain View). New pre-arranged, on-demand car services like Uber and Lyft use global positioning systems for navigation and tracking, while smart phones connect drivers to potential customers who have downloaded an ‘app’ that allows ‘e-hailing’, cashless payment and driver ratings. After disembarking from their tech buses, these car services ferry youthful ‘creatives’ between apartments, condos and trendy nightlife venues. Meanwhile Google, Uber, Lyft and an array of Silicon Valley tech companies have made allegiance with traditional automobile manufacturers, and through nanotech and software, are poised to transform future automobility with fleets of self-driving cars.
