Self-driving cars promised a future where you sit back, relax, and glide past the gridlock while the car handles everything. A new study from the University of Texas at Arlington has some bad news for that fantasy. According to research, widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles could actually make traffic significantly worse.
Professors Stephen Mattingly and Farah Naz conducted a meta-analysis on how self-driving cars could affect vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Their findings showed an average 5.95% increase in vehicle miles traveled. Non-shared autonomous vehicles pushed that figure even higher, to nearly 7%.
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“The rise of AVs could make commuting more convenient, but it may also lead to more pick-up and drop-off activity, more empty vehicle trips, and new costs.”
The logic is simple. When your car can drop you off and drive itself home, or cruise around looking for rides, roads get busier.
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