There is a lot of talk about the – negative – impact that cars, trucks and transport in general have on the environment. However, it seems interesting to investigate what will happen in the future when autonomous driving will become reality and everyday life for everyone.
In fact, experts are starting to wonder about the ways in which autonomous cars and trucks they could contribute to the improvement or, as the most skeptics argue, to further degradation of the environment. If we think that the US transport sector alone is responsible for the 27% of harmful gas emissions in the atmosphere and of the 5,75% of global emissions, it's clear that any measure that can improve fuel efficiency is welcome. A 2016 study came to the conclusion that autonomous vehicles could reduce fuel consumption by up to 90%, but also increase them by 200%. And so, while private and commercial autonomous driving aim to reduce emissions, skeptics fear that the greater convenience of unmanned vehicles could lead to a further increase in emissions.
AUTONOMOUS CARS: A RANGE OF OPPORTUNITIES
96% of the cars on our roads belong to private citizens: so let's see what could happen to the environment with the diffusion of autonomous private cars. Our cars spend 95% of their time parked. Reducing the need to purchase private cars by promoting new self-driving 'robot taxis' could be attractive to private citizens who maintain and insure the cars. In other words, autonomous cars could reduce the number of car ownership in two ways: a) satisfying the needs of the entire family with a single vehicle that could transport workers and students, each with different schedules, and b) becoming a de facto means of public transport, capable of taking each passenger to the desired destination .
The idea is that a single car could pick up and drop off different people at several points by taking advantage of the most energy-saving routes, thus eliminating the need to purchase private cars. Also, the idea that these cars can find free parking spaces using GPS or other systems of communication would save drivers the extra 10-20 minutes spent cruising from street to street looking for a parking space. Finally, in a world full of autonomous cars in constant communication with each other, semaphores will no longer be needed: braking and acceleration will thus be reduced and the cars will always be able to maintain constant speeds, with lower fuel consumption. The concept of autonomous private cars and public taxis is linked to the idea of a world with fewer cars and, consequently, less pollution and less traffic.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES AND THE ENVIRONMENT: THE WORST CASE
If on the one hand the diffusion of autonomous cars should reduce fuel consumption and consequently pollution, on the other there is still the fear that widespread use of this technology could backfire on the environment. For example, given the greater “simplicity” of self-driving, people could be driven by convenience to use cars much more, increasing the frequency of trips per capita. Furthermore, since automatic driving would allow us to be more productive on the move and house prices are lower in peripheral areas than in the city centre, autonomous vehicles could incentivize us to take on longer journeys to get to work, since the time spent in the car would no longer be "wasted". And again, the statistically safer self-driving cars could end up holding higher speeds (with higher emissions), and allow more individuals, including children and the elderly, to move independently, consequently increasing the number of people on the road in any time slot.
ARE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES BETTER ECO-FRIENDLY? BEST CASE
Today trucks are responsible for about 25% of US transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing the fuel consumption of trucks could have a significant impact on reducing pollution. First, theself-driving would allow trucks to reduce emissions always choosing the most energy-efficient speed and driving mode. The "best" truck drivers are already 30% more energy efficient than the "less good". Using cruise control and switching to electric driving at the right time, braking and accelerating only when necessary are all operations that can be implemented automatically in autonomous trucks, to allow each truck to maximize energy savings.
Furthermore, as we have already mentioned when talking about the safety of autonomous vehicles, platooning (a convoy of vehicles traveling in columns, such as a train) is an effective method not only for reducing the number of accidents, but also for decreasing the impact of air currents and save up to 4,5% fuel costs for leading trucks and up to 10% for trailing trucks. Thanks to automatic driving systems, trucks will be increasingly safe and will gradually be able to get rid of their bulky and heavy protective armor, thus becoming more efficient than ever.
Taking into account the various scenarios, negative and positive, we believe it is appropriate to give a chance to the opportunities that autonomous driving poses for our environment. This technology could potentially redefine our concept of mobility and space and encourage constant innovation. In the case of car sharing, it could for example create entire communities of commuters intent on getting from point A to point B as efficiently as possible.
