OPINION: Robo-taxis promise change. But do they deliver progress?

Innovation has become one of the most abused words in our collective vocabulary. Every new app, gadget or piece of software is branded as revolutionary, as if the mere act of introducing technology were synonymous with progress.

Robo-taxis, for instance, are being touted as the future of urban mobility. But let’s be clear: simply rolling out driverless cars is not innovation.

Real innovation does not mean discarding the old for the shiny and new. It means expanding access, making products and services available to people who previously lacked them. If robo-taxis do nothing more than replace existing cabs — while displacing drivers who depend on that livelihood — we haven’t advanced at all. We’ve shifted costs onto workers and society without adding benefits.

History offers cautionary examples. In India, well-meaning efforts to install public toilets fell flat when cultural norms and incentives to use them were ignored. The infrastructure existed, but the intended impact never materialized.

Technology without adoption is not progress; it is waste.

What works instead is a pull strategy — meeting genuine needs that bring people in, rather than pushing change onto a reluctant market. Successful innovations often start imperfectly, but they evolve in response to demand.

Think of the early days of mobile banking in Africa, which grew not because someone declared it the future, but because it solved an urgent problem: providing financial access where traditional banks had failed.

The lesson for robo-taxis — and for any new technology — is simple. Ask not whether it can be built, but whether it can solve real transportation challenges. Can it lower costs for underserved riders? Can it connect communities where traditional taxis don’t go? Can it reduce congestion or expand access for the elderly and disabled? Only then will it deserve the mantle of innovation.

Progress is not about replacing the familiar with the novel. It is about expanding opportunity. If we forget that, our so-called innovations will amount to little more than expensive experiments — while the real work of solving society’s problems remains undone.

* This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.