Driverless Cars Could Save Us From Ourselves (and Also From Each Other)

by Natalie Shoemaker

Driverless cars would be a great benefit to mankind as well as the environment. Firstly, it removes the human element that tends to be the major cause behind traffic accidents (around 90 percent) and, second, would be a boon for the environment, according to a recent study published in Nature Climate Change.

The new study estimates that by 2030, greenhouse gas emissions could be cut by 87 to 94 percent per mile with autonomous taxis. Even if we're all driving hybrid cars by then, researcher estimate that the switch could still reduce emissions dramatically.

Lead author Jeffery Greenblatt, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
 in California, said in a press release:

“When we first started looking at autonomous vehicles, we found that, of all the variables we could consider, the use of autonomous vehicles as part of a shared transit system seemed to be the biggest lever that pointed to lower energy use per mile.”

The researchers are able to give such stellar projections for driverless taxis, because of their numerous capabilities. In the end, they found it really is the little things that adds up to reducing waste. They can be tailored to your ride, for instance, sending a smaller passenger car if only one person needs a lift or a larger car to accommodate more people, and charting the most optimal route. Autonomous taxis would also eliminate the stop and go time compared to normal taxis (if you've ever ridden in one in NYC, you know what I mean), less idling and more driving means more miles with less waste.

However, it has yet to be seen if people will be willing to adopt driverless cars—let alone driverless taxis. But the research seems to show that the benefits could be huge.

"We are not predicting that these things will take over. We’re asking if [they do], what will be the environmental implications?"

Read more at Nature.

Photo Credit: STR / Stringer