Letting go of the wheel: are self-driving cars more efficient?

It’s sometimes hard to believe that we live in an age where we can really step into a car that drives itself. These technological marvels will save us effort and avoid road accidents, but can they also help the environment?

Are you going my Waymo?

Waymo grew from Google’s self-driving car project and span out into its own company, owned by Google’s parent holding firm, Alphabet. The company has not only created a fully working self-driving car, it’s actually operating them as a trial service in Arizona.

Essentially, it works just like Uber. You download the app and pay for a ride to a destination. Only with Waymo, the car that turns up doesn’t have a driver. You pile in the back and the car will begin driving itself.

A series of RADAR and LIDAR sensors all around the car detect objects from buildings and pavements to other cars and pedestrians. Meanwhile, a 360-degree camera on the roof sees road signs, markings and traffic lights.

All that information is transferred into the car’s computer and combined with Google Maps data to give the car an exact, live picture of the route and hazards around it. An advanced AI algorithm then drives the car along the best route to your destination and lets you out.

Waymo says it’s road-tested its cars for thousands of hours and helped the AI to become an expert driver from combining that experience.

Removing human error

Many pundits have expressed concern about the safety of self-driving cars, but given the over 1,500 deaths on UK roads in the course of a year, mainly due to human error, can we really say computer-controlled cars could be worse?

In fact, while admittedly there are significantly fewer self-driving cars on the roads, there have only been five confirmed deaths in total from accidents involving self-driving cars, and none this year.

However, not only are self-driving cars safer, they’re also better for the environment. In fact, the Department of Energy estimates that switching to self-driving cars could cut carbon emissions by up to 90%. How is that possible?

Driving change for the environment

You see, self-driving cars can be programmed to take more fuel-efficient routes and drive in more efficient ways. Instead of impatiently revving your engine and Fast and Furiousing away from traffic lights or jumping on and off the motorway to cut five minutes from your journey, self-driving cars are always well behaved.

Waymo cars actually have the patience to turn their engines off while idoling in traffic; Uber self-driving cars will stick to the speed limit; and Tesla’s version will go into high gear when it needs to.

Simply by driving the way we’re all supposed to be, self-driving cars could make all the difference to the environment.

It’s a staggering improvement, but it’s not the end of the story. You see, if someone else is driving the car, there’s not really any need for you to have your own.

Property is theft

Owning a classic Ford Mustang so you can zoom down the motorway at immense speed with the engine roaring will be significantly less appealing with a safety-conscious AI behind the wheel. As such, will it be worth the price tag?

On the other hand, if we’re all effectively getting driverless Ubers everywhere we need to go, that means we can simply book the size of car we need. If we’re travelling alone, we don’t need to use our family people carrier when Waymo will show up with a self-driving Smart Car.

By sacrificing driving for fun and only using vehicles of the size we need for each trip, we can further cut emissions.

Likewise, if all the cars on the road were owned and operated as fleets, they’d all be models with optimum levels of emissions and be maintained to a safe and environmentally healthy standard. It would even be a way to finally ensure everyone was using electric cars.

Not to sound like a buzzkill, but this sounds like a dramatic improvement. Indeed, think of the benefits for work.

Riding in cars with games consoles

We’re all quarantined at the moment, but once everything is back in operation, people will again start on their commutes and work trips.

Driving currently means focusing on the road and spending hours swearing at bad drivers and watching the clock tick away how late you are for work while you’re stuck in traffic.

With self-driving cars, you can just sit in the back with your laptop and arrive at the office with an hour’s work already under your belt…

…or you could spend an hour playing Animal Crossing and just tell everyone you’ve been working…

No more traffic jams

Not that you’ll spend that long in traffic with a self-driving fleet. With all cars linked by an AI system, a central office will be able to redirect traffic to alternate routes to take pressure off, and even keep traffic to one lane to let emergency vehicles or bypass traffic through.

Say you need to drive one mile along a road before turning off, but there’s an accident after your exit and the whole road is gridlocked. You can’t expect humans to let you through, but self-driving cars will make sure there’s a through-path to where you need to go.

Car manufacturers have been trying to make a more-environmentally friendly option suitable for drivers. Whether that’s unpopular low-powered electric vehicles or potentially explosive hydrogen-fuelled engines, it hasn’t really gone well.

Self-driving cars, however, could reduce emissions by more than a mass adoption of either, just by removing the human element, and they’d be safer, cheaper to run and save you time.

It’s very hard to argue.

Originally published at http://ntsheppard.wordpress.com on June 1, 2021.