6 • The Southwest Portland Post
Dear EarthTalk: Are self-driving cars
good for the environment?
– Billy Shea, Boston, MA
You know the future is here when
you see that the car beside you
at a red light has nobody at the
helm. That’s already happening in
California where a few companies
(Uber, Google, Apple, Tesla) have
begun testing autonomous vehicles
o n t h e o p e n ro a d — a l b e i t w i t h
human drivers at the ready in case
anything goes wrong.
Meanwhile, the major automakers
have begun integrating autonomous
driving technologies (blind spot
detection, GPS mapping, assisted
parking, etc.) into existing models,
and will surely offer their own fully
self-driving cars once lawmakers
qualify them as street legal, maybe
as early as 2018.
Proponents say that not only will
driverless cars make our roads safer
(as they can sense walkers, bikers,
other cars and road infrastructure
to avoid collisions), but will also be
a boon to the environment.
Z i a Wa d u d , w h o c o - a u t h o re d
a study released earlier this year
assessing the travel, energy and
carbon impacts of autonomous
vehicles, said the widespread
adoption of the technology could
reduce energy consumption
significantly.
“Automated vehicles can interact
FEATURES
with each other and drive very
closely as a ‘platoon’,” reported
Wa d u d . “ T h i s c a n r e d u c e t h e
total energy consumption of road
transport by four to 25 percent,
because vehicles which follow
closely behind each other face less
air resistance.”
Beyond the platoon benefit,
driverless cars can also shave
a n o t h e r 2 5 p e rc e n t o ff o v e r a l l
automotive energy consumption
through more efficient computer-
assisted ride optimization.
Yet another environmental benefit
could be fewer cars on the road
altogether.
“Your car could give you a lift
to work in the morning and then
give a lift to someone else in your
family—or, for that matter, to anyone
else. After delivering you to your
destination, it doesn’t sit idle in a
parking lot for 20-plus hours every
day,” reported MIT researchers
Matthew Claudel and Carlo Ratti in
a recent McKinsey.com article.
“By combining ride sharing with
car sharing ... it would be possible
to take every passenger to his or
her destination at the time they
need to be there, with 80 percent
fewer cars.” Claudel and Ratti
conclude that clearing four of five
cars from the road would have
“momentous consequences” for our
cities regarding pollution, traffic,
efficiency, and parking.
But Jason Bordoff of Columbia
University’s Center on Global
Energy Policy argues in The Wall
Street Journal that driverless cars
hurt overall energy efficiency by
undermining public transit.
“If you can work, watch a movie
or sleep while in the car, perhaps
you will take a car rather than public
transportation or be more likely to
drive for long trips.”
Bordoff added that autonomous
January 2017
Google is among the California companies testing autonomous cars.
vehicles also “significantly expand
the universe of potential drivers”
bringing more people (and cars) onto
the road and possibly increasing
total vehicle miles travelled overall.
“Even car-sharing services could
increase energy demand if the ease
and convenience pulls people away
from mass transit, walking or biking
and into cars.”
Bordoff said he remains optimistic
that autonomous vehicles can
provide a net gain for society and
the environment, but only if we are
careful about how we implement
the technology.
“ To e n s u re t h a t a u t o n o m o u s
vehicles deliver economic, energy
security and environmental
benefits, we will need supporting
policies targeted at those objectives,
such as increased fuel-economy
standards, investments in public
transportation infrastructure,
and R&D in alternative vehicle
technologies.”
For his part, Wadud agreed with
Bordoff that driverless cars could
actually be bad for the environment
depending on how things shake out.
“Let’s not be blinded by the
driverless cars by saying they can
solve everything – know that there
could be risks and be careful about
them,” he said.
“That said, I do hope that
driverless cars will encourage car
sharing and help reduce our energy
use and carbon emissions. However,
what will happen in reality remains
to be seen.”
Contacts: “Help or hindrance? The
travel, energy and carbon impacts of
highly automated vehicles,” www.
sciencedirect.com; Claudel and
Ratti’s “Full Speed Ahead: How
the Driverless Car Can Transform
C i t i e s , ” w w w. m c k i n s e y. c o m ;
Columbia Center on Global Energy
Policy, energypolicy.columbia.edu.
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Excellent SW Portland references