Bumpy path predicted for self-driving cars in Australia
Autonomous cars can reduce transportation pollution by driving more efficiently, avoiding traffic jams and reducing the need for parking.
But with the wrong policy settings, technology can eliminate these savings by putting more cars on the roads, discouraging public transportation, and encouraging urban sprawl.
Researchers at RMIT University have warned regulators to consider road rules for robotaxis before hitting the road in Australia, as they published the findings of a two-part study into connected and autonomous vehicles.
The investigation comes after Uber announced plans to expand its autonomous vehicle service to more countries and Google-owned Waymo held talks with the NSW government about road testing.
The connected and automated vehicle study, led by RMIT and funded by the iMove Collaborative Research Centre, reviewed existing data on the environmental impacts of smart vehicles and assessed regulations that could apply to them.
He identified a long list of potential positive and negative consequences of technology, from more efficient driving to more cars on the road.
On the positive side of the study, it revealed that autonomous cars can reduce energy consumption by 15 percent, as they reduce traffic, require less parking, and reduce the number of privately owned cars, in addition to economical driving.
But vehicles could consume more energy if they are allowed to travel at higher speeds, discouraging people from using public transport and encouraging longer car journeys.
RMIT sustainability and urban planning lecturer Liam Davies said autonomous vehicles would also give more people access to private transport, which could increase the number of cars in use.
“Currently people who go out to drink can’t drive… but an autonomous vehicle will allow people who can’t drive, such as drunk people, to drive,” he said.
“You can see how this logically starts to increase the number of miles driven on our roads.”
Researchers explored six policy scenarios for managing negative impacts and found that some of the biggest risks include allowing private use of driverless vehicles, allowing them to compete with public transportation, and driving without passengers.
Darren Atkinson, director of connected and automated vehicle policy at the Department for Transport, said Australian regulators were already considering autonomous vehicle safety laws, but they also needed to consider environmental impacts.
“It’s time for us to come together to think about how to deal with environmental problems,” he said.
“You cannot do these alone, they need to be part of a package, taking into account their social benefits.”
On March 12, Uber announced a partnership with Wayve and Nissan to bring autonomous cars to Japan as part of its global expansion, and Google-owned Waymo approached the NSW government to test its vehicles locally.
