Transitions in Automobility: Fleet-as-a-Service, Automated Vehicles, and the Socio-Technical Infrastructure of Mobility
Keywords:
Fleet-as-a-Service, automated vehicles, socio-technical transitions, serverless computingAbstract
Background: The automotive sector is undergoing a multifaceted reconfiguration driven by technological innovation, institutional change, and emergent business models. This paper synthesizes socio-technical transition theory with empirical and technical literature to articulate how Fleet-as-a-Service (FaaS), automated vehicle technologies, mobility-as-a-service platforms, and serverless computing architectures collectively reshape the automobility system. The study positions recent developments within long-standing frameworks of technological regime shifts and multi-level transitions.
Objective: To produce an integrative, theoretically informed, and critically reflective account of the ongoing transformation of automobility that traces technological, organizational, and infrastructural linkages between vehicle automation, fleet management business models, and the digital architectures that enable them.
Methods: We undertake an extended conceptual and integrative literature synthesis. Anchored in multi-level perspective and transition theory, the analysis systematically relates insights from historical transition studies, contemporary reviews of automated vehicles, and technical studies on serverless computing and distributed telemetry. Each claim is situated relative to the cited literature, with special attention to mechanisms that enable or constrain transitions (technological regimes, niche innovations, landscape pressures, and digital infrastructures).
Results: The synthesis reveals five interdependent dynamics: (1) the commodification of mobility through FaaS reshapes vehicle ownership and utilization patterns (Deshpande, 2024; Aberle, 2020); (2) automated vehicle technologies serve as both niche innovations and destabilizing forces to incumbent automobile regimes (Beza & Zefreh, 2019; Geels, 2005); (3) serverless and event-driven digital architectures materially enable scalable, resilient fleet operations and near real-time telemetry (Anand et al., 2019; Antreas & Georgios, 2020; Barcelona-Pons et al., 2019); (4) socio-technical feedback loops—regulatory, cultural, economic—mediate adoption trajectories (Urry, 2004; Kemp, 1994); and (5) systemic sustainability outcomes remain contingent on coordinated policy, institutional redesign, and equitable service deployment (Geels et al., 2004; Elzen & Wieczorek, 2005).
Conclusions: The emerging mobility ecosystem is not only a technological puzzle but a governance and infrastructural one. Robust transition toward sustainable, equitable automobility requires integrated strategies that align FaaS business models, automated vehicle development, and digital architectures with policy instruments and social objectives. This synthesis illuminates practical levers—data architectures, regulatory experiments, and targeted niche support—that researchers and practitioners can pursue.
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