Editor’s note: Luyi Gui is an associate professor in operations and decision technologies at the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine. Marques McCammon is president and CEO at Irvine-based Karma Automotive.
When we picture the future of transportation, we tend to see a new electric vehicle, a robotaxi or a smarter highway. What is less visible — but just as important — is the change taking place around them.
For Southern California’s business community, transportation innovation can reshape where a company invests, how it serves customers and which partnerships it needs. Business decisions, in turn, help determine which innovations succeed. The future of transportation is therefore much more than a question about vehicles. It is a question about business.
Four shifts offer a starting point for that conversation.
Electrification: Beyond the Vehicle
Battery-electric vehicles accounted for 21.2% of Orange County’s new retail light-vehicle registrations in the first nine months of 2026, according to Orange County Auto Outlook, using data sourced from Experian Automotive. That is more than one in five, although below 27.5% a year earlier — a reminder that the transition is substantial but not a straight line.
The infrastructure supporting that transition is taking shape, too. A May 2026 analysis by Crosstown, using California Energy Commission data, reported 7,075 public EV charging ports in Orange County, including both Level 2 and fast-charging options. It is also reported that more than 80% of residents lived within a 10-minute drive of a public DC fast charger.
This electrification movement is also expected to extend into commercial freight logistics. Behind that network is a broader business ecosystem: transportation, energy, property and customer service. For a hotel, landlord or fleet operator, the opportunity is not simply to install equipment, but to make charging fit the customer’s needs.
The challenge is coordinating investment, power availability and demand when each hinge on different sets of incentives and may therefore move at a different pace.
Automation and AI: New Services, New Responsibilities
In Los Angeles, Waymo already offers fully autonomous rides within its service area. A technology once associated with demonstrations is now part of a commercial service.
Buying mobility rather than owning a vehicle is not new. But automation and AI could change what that service provides and how closely it connects with a customer’s business.
Could transportation become part of production or service delivery itself, rather than simply the movement between activities?
The opportunity extends to new revenue models and partnerships. So do the responsibilities. How should safety, software support and customer trust be managed across a service that continues to evolve?
For Southern California’s automakers, IT companies, insurers, manufacturers and service providers, these are questions about business capabilities and readiness as much as about technology.
Connected Networks: The Whole Journey
LA28, the nonprofit organization responsible for planning, financing and organizing the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, brings another shift into focus: from improving individual trips to making an entire network work together.
Metro is preparing for an estimated 1 million extra regional trips per day during the Olympics, while Caltrans develops the Games Route Network to welcome travelers into the L.A. region for the Games.
For an Orange County hotel, a guest’s experience may depend on airport access, ground transportation and connections to venues. At the same time, employees and deliveries must still arrive, too. A better vehicle cannot, by itself, coordinate all those movements.
The business opportunity lies in making the connections more dependable. The challenge is aligning decisions across public agencies, transportation providers and businesses — from employee schedules to delivery windows.
Resilience is paramount to that planning: When a road closes or a connection fails, the rest of the journey needs alternatives. Who shares information, and who takes responsibility for the handoff?
Sustainability and Access: A Broader Measure of Progress
The Games also make the future of sustainable transportation tangible. LA28 aims to be the cleanest Games in transportation in the history of the United States.
Metro’s preparations include fleet electrification, bus-priority corridors, bicycle lanes and pedestrian improvements intended to benefit communities beyond 2028. But investment alone does not settle who benefits.
The sustainability ambition of LA28 goes beyond environmental goals but also social impact and inclusion. Can a visitor with a disability complete the entire journey? Can lower-income workers afford the services they need? How do we reduce pollution without shifting other burdens to nearby neighborhoods?
Metro’s “Removing Barriers and Creating Legacy” program aims to put transportation equity in focus in preparation for the Games and beyond.
These challenges and efforts connect transportation to housing, employment, healthcare and community development. A sustainable system must work for the people who rely on it, not only for those easiest to serve.
LA28 brings core issues to life, but the bigger question is how to make the improvements permanent in everyday transportation — sustaining the services, partnerships and travel habits after the Games are over.
There is much more to explore. Transportation’s future will influence how businesses organize work, serve customers and compete. Understanding it requires perspectives that no single industry can provide.
On Nov. 4, the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine will host a Future of Transportation forum, part of the Merage School’s Future Series. Dean Ian O. Williamson, faculty and leaders from Karma Automotive, Hyundai Motor Group, John Wayne Airport and Caltrans will join a community of business and government professionals and students to explore these opportunities and challenges.