Impact of driverless vehicles on urban environment and future mobility

Driverless cars or autonomous vehicles (AV) have become topic of debate in various forums for both governments and academia. A lot of research is focused on the technical aspects dealing with what technologies will be needed in order to achieve completely driverless traffic. Less investigated are the effects that this technology will have on our cities and the future mobility. Autonomy along with electrification and sharing is likely to change the face of individual transport in next three decades. This paper tries to understand and foresee the changes in mobility behavior through a scenario building exercise. Various topics that relate to mobility and cities are analyzed based on available researches. The aim of the research is focus on the way this technology can impact our urban environments and set the base for policy changes at different levels. Planners, Policy and car makers and other new stakeholders need to take a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach in understanding and assessing the effect this technology will have in our lives and cities.