Here’s an interesting article in The Dallas Morning News on Greyhound’s technology strategy.

The 101-year-old company stands at a nexus these days. Uber, car-sharing services and autonomous vehicles will likely thoroughly rearrange ground transportation over the next decade. And young millennials continue their migration to downtown areas — sometimes without cars…

Now Greyhound sells at least 60 percent of its tickets through mobile digital devices like cellphones and tablets, Leach said. And over the next few years, the company wants to become part of a loose urban-mobility network built around ride-sharing and autonomous vehicles…

Despite their Old World aura, buses are a solid part of the modern transportation industry, and Greyhound is still the largest player, with an estimated 31.2 percent share of the market.

Well, if by “Old World” you mean Europe, they have had an efficient inter-city train system for about 50 years. We don’t have that in the U.S. for at least two reasons. First, because we have an enormous investment in a highway system that benefits the auto, oil and finance industries. That system is not optimal by any stretch of the imagination, but now that we’ve built it, we are stuck maintaining it and it would be extremely difficult to abandon it in favor of a better system like an efficient inter-city train network. There isn’t enough money to do both at the same tie. Second, the current approach is further entrenched by our federal political system which gives disproportionate votes and funds to the empty spaces between cities.

Now, if you’re a bus service, you benefit from that sunk investment in the highway system because you don’t have to pay anything near its true cost. Your customers are paying those costs in taxes and blood, but your prices appear cheap to them. Add in a few perks like wireless and clean comfortable seats, and your service becomes a near optimal way to navigate a very suboptimal transportation system.