Best Thing About Self-Driving Cars? You Won't Have To Park Them, Which Is Also Bad For Traffic

Self-driving vehicles are still largely in a testing phase as complete autonomy is still a distant dream. Autonomous technology still has a lot of work to be done, and a recent report piles on the bad news, which is actually pretty hilarious as well.

While human drivers have to park their cars upon reaching their destinations, a new study suggests that no such obligation exists for autonomous vehicles. The study says that it would instead be more profitable for the self-driving vehicles to just cruise around once the occupant has gotten off at a spot.

Representative Image (Reuters)

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Conducted by transportation planner Professor Adam Millard-Ball of the University of California, the study focussed upon the way self-driving vehicles respond to parking situations. The study mentions that if the vehicles keep cruising around once the humans have disembarked, it can naturally save the parking cost and hence will be inclined towards it.

This translates to a potential problem as the autonomous vehicles, instead of parking, would rather cruise around at low speeds around an area. This might lead to traffic congestions in the area, meaning increased travel times for other vehicles passing through the region.

¡°Even when you factor in electricity, depreciation, wear and tear, and maintenance, cruising costs about 50 cents an hour ¡ª that¡¯s cheaper than parking even in a small town,¡± Millard-Ball said in a statement. Using a traffic microsimulation model based on data from downtown San Francisco, Millard-Ball came to the conclusion that having such cruising self-driving vehicles on the roads could in fact double the travel time for the overall traffic.

Representative Image (Reuters)

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Millard-Ball also offered a potential solution for this in his study. He suggests that instead of a parking fee, cities can shift to a congestion pricing model, wherein vehicles will have to pay to enter a busy area. The vehicles can then be charged on an hourly basis within the area, irrespective of whether they are parked or moving. This would neutralise the benefits for self-driving vehicles to roam around in a region. Such a system is followed in several cities across the world, including London and Singapore.

The ¡®cruising problem¡¯ is just another of a long list of such issues involved with autonomous vehicles. A major one on the list, is the safety concern that arises from having no human behind the wheel, or rather, an inactive human, who might break off his/ her attention from the road, relying on the self-driving system, as observed in some recent cases.