The Woodlands Real Estate Blog

Google is the most conspicuous developer of autonomous vehicles, but it is hardly alone in pursuing this venture

Most automakers are competing to introduce their own driverless cars to the public, and are doing so piecemeal, system by system. The components of the upcoming driverless car are being introduced into current models as ever more elaborate mechanisms to aid the driver, such as self-parking features and automated collision avoidance systems. Recently, a group of researchers at Oxford University developed a self-driving system which can be installed in existing manually driven vehicles, and whose cost is hoped to fall as low as 150 dollars within a matter of years.

Driverless cars will affect urban form mostly in two forms...

Cities will greatly expand, again: Faster and more efficient transportation will convert locations that are currently too remote for most users into feasible alternatives, abundant with space. Like suburban rail in the early twentieth century and the mass consumer automobile that followed, driverless cars will generate a gradual, but dramatic expansion of cities.

By making longer commutes more tolerable, suddenly the suburbs are revitalized as employees realize they don’t have to live next to the office to maintain a high quality of life.

Buildings and parking will be uncoupled, freeing up valuable land: After dropping off passengers, driverless cars will independently seek parking (or their next car-share customers) and they will show up for the return ride at the tap of an app. As soon as driverless cars are common enough, the demand for adjacent parking will dwindle and parking lots in areas where land is sufficiently valuable will be ripe for conversion to other land use. As parking in high-value areas is thinned out or altogether purged, the micro-structure of cities will change dramatically.

This will result in greener cities, the suburbanization of parking would free up urban property, leading to more environmentally healthy cities. As these autonomous vehicles transition to all-electric models, the greening of our roads will only increase.