Find new ventures enabled by a driverless-only urban interstate corridor

Picture a major city where one section of the interstate highway that passes through it is open only to self-driving cars: human-driven vehicles are not allowed on it. Identify the business opportunities this creates, explain which ones look most promising, and say where you would start. ```hint Start from who is affected Before listing businesses, work out who is affected by a road that only self-driving cars may use: who can get onto it, who cannot, and what the people and vehicles on it now need. Each unmet need is something someone may pay to have solved. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Whose opportunities are we looking for: Google's, a new startup's, or any business's? - Is this an existing stretch that people drove until it became self-driving only, or new capacity added alongside roads that everyone can still use? - Which vehicles may use it: privately owned self-driving cars, robotaxis, and self-driving trucks or vans as well? - Who owns and operates the section, where does it run (for example between downtown and the suburbs, or toward the airport), and may it charge tolls? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Settling whose perspective the answer takes and the key facts about the section, including whether it replaced a road people drove, before brainstorming. - Mapping the needs a self-driving-only section creates for people who cannot use it, riders, vehicle operators, the road owner and nearby businesses, and how those needs shift if drivers lost a road they used. - A broad, structured set of opportunities that goes beyond roadside services, including ones that exploit a road where only machines drive. - Prioritizing by size, fit with the company's strengths, feasibility and regulatory risk, and ending with one recommendation and a first step. - Success metrics and risks, including safety, public acceptance and fairness to people who cannot afford a self-driving car. ### Follow-up Questions - Suppose the section used to be an ordinary highway, so many commuters lost access when it became self-driving only. How would you serve them profitably without the road becoming a perk for wealthy people? - If you could launch only one opportunity in the first year, which would it be, and what would you measure in its first 90 days? - How would your answer change if the city planned more self-driving-only highway sections?