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Stingy driverless cars will clog future streets instead of parking
It's a nightmarish vision of San Francisco's future, like something out of science fiction: streets full of driverless cars, crawling along implacably but at a snail's pace, snarling traffic and bringing the city to a standstill from the iconic Ferry Building to Union Square.
But according to Adam Millard-Ball, associate professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, this scenario could come to pass simply as a result of rational behavior on the part of autonomous vehicle owners. Congestion pricing that imposes a fee or tax for driving in the downtown core could help prevent this future, but cities need to act fast, before self-driving cars are common, he argues.
Those conclusions emerge from an analysis published in the journal Transport Policy, in which Millard-Ball used game theory and a computer model of San Francisco traffic patterns to explore the effects of autonomous vehicles on parking. He found that the gridlock happens because self-driving cars don't need to park near a rider's destination – in fact, they don't need to park at all.
The autonomous vehicle parking problem (DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2019.01.003) (DX)
(Score: 3, Touché) by acid andy on Tuesday March 12 2019, @09:44PM (1 child)
If it's electric you'd better hope it finds somewhere to recharge itself, otherwise it'll be out of juice when you want to be driven home. That's why I think standardized battery packs that can be swapped in instantly are the way forward (although there are all sorts of issues with liability if a customer has a damaged / worn out one that the gas station swaps out, and I bet demand would exceed supply such that all the pre-charged ones would have been taken so you'd still have to sit and wait for hours).
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday March 13 2019, @01:56AM
When parking is over $10, it also makes economic sense for a gasoline powered car to leave the city for parking. An electric car might go all the way home to charge.