>>1034220>They can go much faster than non self driving car.Wrong. Despite the reaction time and whatnot, they still need to brake, and they can't brake faster than regular cars, except for the small difference in reaction time. An autonomous car driving at 50 km/h or faster through neighbourhoods is still dangerous if a child shows up out of nowhere. Speed limits won't rise inside cities. Maybe for highways.
>>1034245That wouldn't make automobiles less inefficient, and city transportation has such high demand levels that a generalized use of automobiles, be they human-operated or autonomous is simply unsustainable.
The slight gain in efficiency for automous cars would be instantly offset by the induced demand of automobiles without driver getting to/from pickup spots and more people driving because of more commodity. Traffic levels will again level out when they reach the maximum capacity of any roadway, and automobile use will be just as (in)convenient as it is now.
There's absolutely no argument to defend that autonomous cars will change our mobility habits in any significant way, except for the last step of distribution (as in to/from train stations and the like, in low-density areas, as an on-demand substitute for light traffic bus lines). The main problem with cars (apart from the ones that would be solved with electric and autonomous vehicles) is their excessive use of space. In my city we have 60% of urban space dedicated to about 20% of all trips which are made by automobile. And this isn't even one of the most progressive cities, transport wise, we have about 25% of trips done by car, and 30% of trips by public transit, the rest is by foot mostly, and by bike. My guess is that american-type cities dedicate even more urban space to automobiles, and still no city is able to fully deal with traffic problems by expanding highways. As I said, autonomous vehicles will not have big enough influence to really resolve this.
