Call up driverless car, hop in – this is the future!

No driver
No driver

Photo by Automobile Italia licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Just a few years ago, the notion of autonomous vehicles would have caused people to chuckle. Not so anymore! Driverless cars are the future.

Google and Lexus have already released prototypes and the competition between manufacturers is keen. In fact, seven companies have announced plans for autonomous vehicles. The market is moving so rapidly that California has awarded permits to test self-driving cars to Mercedes-Benz, Delphi Labs, Tesla and Audi.

Car manufacturers are investing millions and aggressively pursuing this new transportation space. Volvo’s Drive Me project will deliver 100 self-driving cars to customers by 2017. Mercedes-Benz dealers are already touting the Future Truck 2025, which will be equipped with “highway pilot,” an automated system that communicates with nearby vehicles. Uber says it will be providing driverless fleets by 2030.

Autonomous vehicle technology is seen as one of the most transformative and exciting advances in decades. The technology is also possibly the most disruptive of the century. How will autonomous vehicles change transportation planning? And, perhaps more importantly, how do public officials at the local and state levels of government prepare now for driverless cars in the very near future?

The National League of Cities has just released its City of the Future report that deals with autonomous vehicles and other major changes that will significantly impact cities in the next few years. The deployment of autonomous vehicles will likely be the most challenging and disruptive.

The vehicles will impact many industry sectors – taxicabs, insurance companies, public transit authorities, departments of transportation, local law enforcement and more. Individual lifestyles are predicted to change because of driverless cars.

Considering that Uber’s drivers now take home 75 percent of the company’s revenues, Uber’s autonomous vehicles will significantly push transportation costs down for consumers. Some transportation experts have predicted that autonomous vehicles could potentially reduce the number of vehicles on the road by 90 percent. While that sounds extremely high and almost unbelievable, consider the impact if only half of that prediction is realized.

Not only will autonomous vehicles create issues for mayors, transportation agencies, regulators and planners, but they will also raise all kinds of issues for legislators. What regulations will be required? Will state regulations take precedence over local ones? What authority will the federal government have? Will existing state fleets become obsolete? How will public employment be impacted? What will it mean for private companies doing business with government?

The commercialization of all aspects of this technology is exciting and researchers in both the public and private sectors are racing to carve out a space. Uber announced in August that it will partner with the University of Arizona to focus on the optics systems necessary for mapping and safety in autonomous vehicles. Research labs on university campuses throughout the country are eager to join with private-sector partners to launch commercial ventures.

The transportation industry today could almost be compared to a time long past when horse-drawn buggies were being replaced with motorized vehicles. Many things became obsolete rather quickly – horse whips in particular.