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25 Percent of US Driving Could Be Done By Self-Driving Cars By 2030, Study Finds (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the picking-up-steam dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Self-driving still seems to be a ways off from active public use on regular roads, but once it arrives, it could ramp very quickly, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group. The study found that by 2030, up to a quarter of driving miles in the U.S. could be handled by self-driving electric vehicles operating in shared service fleets in cities, due mostly to considerable cost savings for urban drivers. The big change BCG sees is a result of the rise in interest in autonomous technologies, paired with the increased electrification of vehicles. There's also more pressure on cities to come up with alternate transportation solutions that address increasing congestion. All of that added together could drive reduction in costs by up to 60 percent for drivers who opt into using shared self-driving services vs. owning and operating their own cars.

3 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Its called mass transit by Elfich47 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Larger cities need to invest in mass transit and maintain it. Look at NYC, Tokyo and London as working mass transit systems. Smaller cities need working bus systems that aren't starved for money in order to be useful.

    And I'll get ahead of it here: mass transit needs to be properly funded in order to work properly. Mass transit does not appear to pay for itself on the surface, it pays for itself because of increase in population density that occurs as a result.

    --
    Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
    1. Re:Its called mass transit by MrLogic17 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >, it pays for itself because of increase in population density that occurs as a result.

      You say that like it's a good thing.

  2. Pooled driving? Already exists. by MrLogic17 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We already have pooled driving and shared cars. It's called a taxi.
    The only thing a self-driving vehicle does is take out the cost of the human driver. That's it.

    People also carpool. That's been around forever.

    Self-driving vehicles will change a lot of things: delivery trucks will go cross-country without sleep breaks, off-site parking will be more practical, highway deaths will drop like crazy - but nothing about city traffic will fundamentally change.