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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: 1) by optotronic on Wednesday March 13 2019, @02:29AM (1 child)
You can argue about the relative importance of these versus streets filled with manure, but:
1) Global climate change: electric vehicles have the potential to significantly (?) contribute to the solution
2) Inability of drivers to pay attention to driving vs. their smart phones: self driving cars could fix this
(Score: 4, Insightful) by vux984 on Wednesday March 13 2019, @03:58AM
#1 is orthogonal to the question. People will shift to electric regardless. There is no reason to think that simply becoming electric is going to motivate people not to own one. Self-driving tech is the hypothesis that has been raised that will reduce ownership.. but that has really nothing to do with electric, or with global warming.
#2 Am I really going to stop owning a car and hail one simply so i can look at my smartphone instead? And why wouldn't i still own one? Then i can look at my smartphone in clean, well maintained, luxury... instead of a smelly beat up 'fleet' car?