Harbingers Of Change

Most people are already rubbing shoulders with advanced technology at work. The future of work is enthralling, but it also brings some scares

- Harichandan Arakali

On a recent morning in Bengaluru, Amit Gupta, co-founder of the bicycle sharing startup Yulu, spoke on the future of mobility at a centre of German automotive supplier Robert Bosch. On a screen behind him was a presentation slide that showed a black-and-white photograph of a bus fitted with a rack upfront; two bicycles were stacked on it.

It was a big trend in Europe and in some cities in the US where they provided such buses, Gupta explained. People could bring their cycles to the nearest bus stop, stash their bikes on the racks, ride those buses over the longer commutes they needed to complete and then use the two-wheelers for the last-mile transport to their destinations.

“That [trend] to me was the beginning of connected mobility,” said Gupta. Even for the biggest cab aggregator in the world, the future is not just about cars, but also bikes, buses and flying taxis, said Gupta, referring to Uber’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s vision for the ride-sharing network company.

Yulu, Gupta’s new venture—he already has the distinction of having co-founded InMobi, one of India’s unicorns—is an excellent example of what the future could look like in India. The startup allows people to use its smartphone app to find the nearest ‘Yulu Zone’, unlock a bicycle by scanning a QR code, ride it to another zone, and drop it there.

Riders are expected to manually lock the bicycle with the lock built in and walk to their destinations. One has to also tap ‘end ride’ on the app, at which point Yulu will deduct a small fee for using the bike. As of now, the bikes are available in a few locations in Bengaluru, but Gupta plans to grow his company across India.