Location
San Francisco, Phoenix, Beijing, Dubai
Company/organization
Local Motors, Cruise, Baidu, BeemCar
In the scenario where autonomous vehicles are introduced as part of a larger scale form of transportation system it is anticipated that there will be a higher degree of residential urban sprawl. Autonomous vehicles as part of this system could help to reduce the cost of transportation (incl. time cost) and as such make areas more accessible. This is likely to reduce the importance of location in selecting where to live. With location less of a factor then it is speculated that communities will locate where it is cheaper to live especially as travel becomes much more convenient with the introduction of autonomous vehicles. Areas which were seen as less appealing due to their further location suddenly could be ripe for development. This was a view shared by a majority of participants in a survey conducted by Virginia Tech in 2020 identifying that the “location of developments could be impacted by autonomous vehicles in the future†(Rhodes, 2020).
Autonomous vehicles in this scenario could take on multiple forms beyond the traditional car. For example the Cruise Origin applies a modular design for an autonomous vehicle which removes the steering wheel, mirrors and pedals to maximize the amount of cabin space for their urban ride sharing services. This could expand to shuttles such as the Olli Shuttle, autonomous buses such as the Baidu Robobus or even sky pods such as those proposed in Dubai.
However it should be noted that this impact would be readily influenced by policy especially as autonomous vehicles start to shape the future landscape for contentious issues such as distance-based pricing, car ownership, congestion charging and possible forms of excises.