The idea behind Uber is that anyone can become an Uber driver, meaning that unlike taxis where you’ll have to get a special license and pay for the taxi, Uber lets anyone with a car become a driver. This has blossomed into a huge business, much to the annoyance of taxi companies who feel that Uber is encroaching on their business.
However those problems could soon find their way into the laundromat industry. Speaking to the Financial Times (paywall; via Engadget), Electrolux’s CEO Jonas Samuelson revealed that the company is testing out an “Uber” for laundry machines, where instead of investing in your own laundry machines like a washing machine or dryer, you could pay to get your clothes done at someone else’s house, which has the potential to kill the concept of laundromats.
Samuelson acknowledges that there are a ton of potential legal and technical hurdles that they’ll need to overcome if they hope to get this service off the ground. As Engadget points out, what if a machine were to shrink someone’s clothes, would it be their fault or the fault of the owner of the machine? Also what’s to spot people from buying/renting properties and turning them into makeshift laundromats?
It is unclear if this idea will ever make it past the testing phase, but if you’re someone who lives alone and doesn’t really have that big of a laundry load to do on a daily basis, sharing does seem like it could be more affordable.
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