Hi, I’m Azeem Azhar. I convene Exponential View to help us understand how our societies and political economy will change under the force of rapidly accelerating technologies. In today’s charts: work and workers; cities and bikes; love and sex.

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Dept of work

That’s the way you do it

Long-range analysis shows a progressively shorter work week across some of the wealthiest countries, in tandem with rising prosperity. It is a rich report. Source: Bain

More than money

Absolutely fascinating correlation. With rising incomes, workers are more likely to say that a job is about more than earning money. Source: Bain

Employee power

Wages are rising rapidly in the US, signalling a growing worker power. Source: Goldman Sachs via Carl Quintanilla

More room for robots

The stock of industrial robots continues to rise, particularly in China. With better technologies, physical robots are moving into more dynamic environments such as cleaning, service, and warehouse handling. The investment case for robots is improved by accelerating technologies and rising wages. Source: IFR

Dept of micromobility

The term micromobility was first coined by analyst Horace Dediu to describe transportation by vehicles that weigh less than 500 kilograms (around 1100 pounds). Long-time EV members will know Horace from a briefing on micromobility we did a few years ago. Over the years, Horace expanded the term to define efficient forms of mobility in terms of the energy consumed. I was excited to get together with him again to discuss the future of transport and cities on the podcast. Our conversation comes out in a few hours. In the meantime, let’s look at micromobility through data...

Measuring the market

A projection of the future of the micromobility market: at 200 million units by 2035, it could trump the electric car market projected to 80 million units. Source: Horace Dediu, Micromobility Industries

Modicum Of Transport

To put micromobility innovation into context, Horace suggested decoupling its measure of performance and value from automobility by introducing a new measure –  a “Modicum of Transport”. MOT is “the nominal energy cost of transporting one person one kilometer”, and as such a yardstick to help us gauge how we can transport people with less energy. Source: Horace Dediu, Micromobility Industries

The beginnings

Even before Covid struck, micromobility had banner growth. In the US, the number of trips using bike-share or scooter share quadrupled between 2017 and 2019. Source: NACTO