This report explores the impacts of autonomous (also called self-driving, driverless or robotic) vehicles, and their implications for transportation planning. It investigates how quickly such vehicles are likely to develop and be deployed based on experience with previous vehicle technologies; their likely benefits and costs; how they will affect travel activity; and their impacts on road, parking and public transit planning. This analysis indicates that Level 5 autonomous vehicles, able to operate without a driver, may be commercially available and legal to use in some jurisdictions by the late 2020s, but will initially have high costs and limited performance. Some benefits, such as independent mobility for affluent non-drivers, may begin in the 2030s but most impacts, including reduced traffic and parking congestion, independent mobility for low-income people (and therefore reduced need for public transit), increased safety, energy conservation and pollution reductions, will only be significant when autonomous vehicles become common and affordable, probably in the 2040s to 2060s, and some benefits may require dedicated autonomous vehicle lanes, which raises social equity concerns.
Abstract