A whole range of social and technological changes could revolutionise how we travel in the coming decades.
Car owners’ attachment to driving and the willingness of others to switch from public transport could confound rosy predictions for autonomous vehicles.
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Scenarios based on a survey of Adelaide commuters and analyses of traffic flows show it’s possible the congestion could get worse in the transition to driverless vehicles.
Would that it were so simple.
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Planes, trains and automobiles produced a step-change in the speed of travel – driverless and electric cars simply cannot deliver such radical improvements.
Driverless cars will form a fast, efficient transport network, which will make car ownership redundant. But they could also spell the end of public transport.
The real ethical challenge of driverless cars is not deciding how they respond in emergencies – it’s facing up to the failings of human drivers.
People expect drivers to stop for them at pedestrian crossings, but what if they know autonomous vehicles will stop any time someone chooses to step in front of them?
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How will people respond once they realise they can rely on autonomous vehicles to stop whenever someone steps out in front of them? Human behaviour might stand in the way of the promised ‘autopia’.
As automated technologies are increasingly incorporated into car design, consumers need to educate themselves on these features for safety reasons.
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More manufactured cars are integrating assisted-driving technologies such as parking support and networked dashboards. But what should a consumer look for?
Cities have a choice of autonomous vehicle futures: cars or mass transit vehicles. Which one we adopt is likely to determine how people-friendly our cities are.
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Autonomous mass transit vehicles like ‘trackless trams’ are a better bet than autonomous cars to give us people-friendly cities that capture the value created by infrastructure for the common good.
An increase in the use of self-driving cars will change parking infrastructure in cities, and hopefully result in more colourful character neighbourhoods.
One-third of roads in the U.S. are unpaved; plenty more have faded or obscured road markings. Today’s self-driving vehicles can’t go on them, and will need new algorithms to handle those conditions.
A cleaner future with autonomous vehicles is not a sure thing.
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The spread of ride-hailing services and autonomous vehicles will lead to higher energy demand, a study finds. Electric vehicles and a much cleaner grid are the only way to avoid more emissions.