People have dreamt of driverless, or autonomous vehicles (AVs) for a long time. In the past, it was a lack of real-world viability that had prevented the vision of a ‘robot car’ being turned into reality. But now, European, Japanese, US and Chinese companies – including big names like Google, Bosch and Toyota – are researching in this field. Singapore is among the countries trialling this technology. Permanent Secretary for Transport Pang Kin Keong has said, “The trials will help us shape the mobility concepts which can meet Singapore’s needs, and also gain valuable insights into how we can design our towns of the future to take advantage of this technology.”
A number of advantages have been predicted as a result of the introduction of AVs within cities around the world:
Safety
- WHO estimates estimates 1.25 million people die each year in traffic accidents and millions more are injured.
- 1/2 of those injured are vulnerable users like pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists.
- Motor vehicle crashes are in fact the leading cause of death for 15-29 year olds.
AVs will be much safer than human-driven vehicles as they eliminate human factors such as distraction, fatigue, poor sight, long reaction times, and road rage. With a computer in control traffic injuries and deaths can be dramatically reduced. Vehicles will be more cautious around vulnerable users, and obey traffic laws – like stopping at red lights and obeying speed limits.
Image Source: https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/
Efficiency
Efficiency will be improved in four ways:
- Higher use of roadway space and more predictable traffic movements: With a connected network of vehicles that can ‘talk’ to each other and roadside sensors, vehicles can coordinate their movements potentially smoothing out congestion, improving safety, and lowering emissions.
- Allocation of road space: If drivers are no longer behind the wheel they can do other activities like work, watching movies, reading the news, etc. Driverless cars will enable designers, planners and engineers to create more pleasant urban environments by converting general lanes and on-street parking into bike lanes, small parks, and wider footpaths.
- Parking Requirements: Cities could design centralised parking, and fuelling or charging facilities, meaning that off-street parking could be reduced in new buildings. The density of urban areas could be increased as a result of this freed up land.
- Transportation funding: If road use becomes more efficient and regulated as a result of AVs, then less money would need to be spent on road enlargements and unnecessary freeways and arterial roads could be narrowed and demolished. Funding could then be used for maintaining and developing affordable and efficient mass transit systems.
There are many attractive aspects to the introduction of AVs. But it may also have negative impacts such as job losses caused by automation. Many people have jobs driving buses, taxis, and trucks. How will their lives be affected by the introduction of AVs? It’s a scary outlook, but is not unlike past shifts following the inventions of steam power and computers. If the change is slow enough mass unemployment can probably be avoided. Can you imagine what new job openings in developing fields related to AVs could be possible for these people?
Source: http://www.biztechmagazine.com/article/2013/03/will-self-driving-cars-lead-safer-roads-infographic
Sources: https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/01/07/the-good-and-the-bad-of-driverless-cars-for-cities/
http://www.biztechmagazine.com/article/2013/03/will-self-driving-cars-lead-safer-roads-infographic
