How Uber and Lyft will disrupt credit unions

As I wandered through this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it was obvious the automobile industry was consuming almost the entire hall. Vendors like Ford, GM, and Audi were all present with their autonomous (self-driving) cars.

The future is autonomous cars, and insurance companies are claiming they will be able to reduce insurance rates by up to 80 percent once these cars hit the road. Of course, that’s a statement about the future, and I don’t know that they are any more competent in predicting the future than I am in picking the winning numbers for the $1.3 billion lottery (spoiler alert, not very good).

The rest of the show was curved TVs, lots of wearables for both humans and dogs (do I really want to know how many steps my dog took today?) and refrigerators that tell you when you’re out of milk.

While in Las Vegas for the show, I exclusively used Uber and Lyft for getting around. My first time using them and it was a total delight. You can see the tiny car on your phone moving closer and closer to you until you can see the tiny car on the street, with the driver, whose picture you have memorized, sitting behind the wheel. Great experience, and, except for the hours of noon to 5, when a two-mile ride up the strip costs $65, very reasonable.

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