Medical transport is next frontier for ride-hailing

AUSTIN, Texas — If there's one thing Silicon Valley types love to do, it's take something other people have tried to do and failed and find a way to make that thing work. Bonus points if they can find a way to make money on that thing, too.

And if that thing does a societal good? Well, then you've got magic happening.

The ride-hailing industry is trying to make magic by focusing on health transportation services: finding a way to make nonemergency transportation for disabled or elderly people to doctor's offices and hospitals affordable. Health care transportation services is an industry that suffers from high costs and complexity, and it is ripe for disruption.

Uber and Lyft launched services this month that offer transportation to doctor's offices and hospitals, paid for by the care providers. And Ford has been dipping its toe in this market.

Carmakers and suppliers laser-focused on developing autonomous vehicles had been thinking self-driving cars would solve issues around health care transportation. But they've come to realize that the customer interface and service side of the business could pose as many challenges as the core vehicle sensor technology.

For now, people are needed to help patients get in and out of cars. And current customers are often dissatisfied with such things as having to schedule trips days in advance or being supplied with vehicles that don't meet their needs — for example, such as not having space for medical equipment like wheelchairs. And each trip can cost up to $100.

"There's a lot of inefficiency in this space," said Jessica Robinson, director of city solutions for Ford Motor Co., at the SXSW, or South by Southwest, festival here. "The user experience is a big part of it, too; it requires a lot of coordination with the health care system."

In January, Ford , TransLoc and Autonomic, to help it scale a nonemergency medical transport service in Michigan, working with multiple health care systems. The company needed digital chops to help it compete with the likes of Uber and Lyft, companies built around fine-tuning services to maximize profitability.

Building a successful transportation service has many challenges, experts said, from consumer education to pricing and operation.

"Everybody thinks technology will be a key factor, but how to get a customer base and pricing is very important," said Yasushi Ishiai, chief of mobility services at Panasonic Corp.

The electronics giant is traditionally known as a supplier to carmakers, manufacturing radios, navigation systems and electronic sensors. Now, it's building autonomous vehicle prototypes utilized to understand the business case of potential services. The company is testing a Level 3 self-driving car service developed in-house in Eiheiji, Japan, a town of 20,000 people near a major pilgrimage destination.

With an aging population and no transit, the local governments are supportive of Panasonic's efforts to provide mobility.

Although the company is researching autonomous vehicle tech, Ishiai was at SXSW last week to highlight that the company's goals do not conflict with those of its carmaker customers.

"Our intention is not to sell vehicles; we have no intention to invade their space," Ishiai said. "We want to establish a new transportation service."

The software needed to improve logistics and manage customer expectations is similar to the software used for standard ride-hailing companies

"A lot of it comes down to better communication," said Justin Bergener, CEO of Goin, a software company that connects paratransit users with service providers. "If we communicate better, we make that process easier for everybody."

The company was formed in 2015 by Bergener, inspired by his frustrations managing a family-owned medical transport company, where he witnessed a fragmented market fail to meet the needs of its customers.

"The system was created quite a while ago, when technology didn't have the capabilities it has today," Bergener said. "It's about putting things in the right place at the right time and in the right mode."