Self-driving cars are both a popular and contentious topic, especially when they keep making the news for getting into accidents. In theory, once self-driving cars become more common, they could reduce the overall number of accidents by up to 90 percent. While they can save lives, will self-driving cars be better for the environment? Let’s take a closer look at the environmental impact of self-driving cars and whether or not they’ll be better in the long run than traditional human-driven vehicles.
The Importance of VMT
VMT, or vehicle miles traveled, is one of the primary variables used to calculate the environmental impact of a car, whether it is a self-driving electric model or an old beat-up truck. The further a car travels, the more damage it does to the environment in the form of emissions created, of course. This number goes up for single-person trips.
Autonomous vehicles will make it easier for people to get around, especially those who are too young, too old or disabled and cannot drive. This will result in more people on the road, and an increase in VMT. If traditional gasoline cars are equipped with self-driving technology, this will increase the carbon footprint of self-driving vehicles.
This increase can be mitigated by discouraging car ownership in favor of car-sharing or ride-sharing programs. The more people there are in a car, the lower the vehicle miles traveled because it’s taking one or more cars off the road.
Self-Driving Car Insurance
Car insurance is fairly straightforward — you pay a monthly or biannual premium and you are protected in the event of a car accident. Self-driving car insurance may be more complicated, which is a large part of the reason these cars aren’t more common on the highways. Who is responsible for the accident if the car itself was driving?
Currently, you still need traditional car insurance for self-driving cars, but that might be phased out in the future if car accidents become less frequent. Instead of insurance, automakers would potentially be held liable for self-driving car accidents, since they would fall under manufacturer defect or equipment error.
Self-Driving Cars and Highway Congestion
One of the biggest potential benefits of self-driving cars is in the fact that they may be able to help reduce traffic congestion. Getting stuck in traffic accounts for up to 25 percent of your car’s fuel use, which is translated into an increased carbon footprint.
Self-driving cars, once they make up the majority of the vehicles on the road, may not even need things like traffic lights. If the cars can connect to one another, they may be able to predict locations and speed, and adjust their course accordingly.
There are, of course, some experts who think self-driving vehicles will make traffic congestion worse instead of better. That is a possibility, until self-driving vehicles replace their human-driven counterparts completely. Once that happens, though, the possibilities probably go beyond what we can even imagine now.
Poor Fuel Efficiency
Cars are designed to be as aerodynamic and fuel-efficient as possible. Self-driving cars tend to sacrifice this efficiency in favor of the equipment needed for vehicle autonomy. Vehicles that can drive themselves are heavier and less aerodynamic than others because of the onboard computers, sensors and cameras needed to enable the car to drive itself safely.
This results in a car that can be considered autonomous but uses more fuel, increasing its overall carbon footprint. One thing these cars do have going for them, though, is their ability to reduce traffic congestion. In spite of the increased carbon footprint, the improved traffic flow results in a 9 percent net decrease in broad spectrum greenhouse gas emissions.
We will need to see a lot more self-driving cars on the road before we can make a solid determination as to whether or not they will be good for the environment. If we can manage to transition to electric self-driving cars like Tesla, that will lower the carbon footprint of these vehicles even more. As it stands, though, current self-driving car technology is already starting to show a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions.
Kate is a health and political journalist. You can subscribe to her blog, So Well, So Woman, to read more of her work and receive a free subscriber gift! https://sowellsowoman.com/about/subscribe/