Brent ToderianFeb 11, 2023

Will self-driving cars lead to more driving? Here’s something to consider — Berkeley researchers gave subjects a chauffeur for a week, mimicking the experience of owning a self-driving car.

Miles driven jumped 83%.

Via @jalopnik HT @davidzipper #cars #cities #SelfDrivingCars #DriverlessCars
https://jalopnik.com/zombie-miles-and-napa-weekends-how-a-week-with-chauffe-1839648416

Zombie Miles And Napa Weekends: How A Week With Chauffeurs Showed The Major Flaw In Our Self-Driving Car Futur

A few years ago, Mustapha Harb realized there was a problem in his field of research about how autonomous cars will change the way people travel. The solution to the problem he settled on was as simple as it was revealing.

Jalopnik
Show threadDavid Rosnow

@BrentToderian @davidzipper Javons predicts this quite well. Reduce the cost of using a car, by eliminating the opportunity cost of driving, and people will use cars more. We can see a good analog with TNC already.

Note that EV also reduce the cost of operating a car. That’s also a problem in terms of VMT.

These effects make pricing roads imperative.

Feb 12, 2023 at 5:46amWeb