Self-driving cars could make urban traffic jams worse
Sorry to break it to you, but autonomous vehicles won’t rid the world of gridlock, according to new research.
The study: A report released today by the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group used simulations to examine how traffic flows would change around the city of Boston as more robotic cars hit the roads.
The results: They found that self-driving cars could lead to a 5.5 percent increase in traffic in the city’s downtown. While there will be fewer cars on the road overall, congestion will increase because commuters will likely choose the new vehicles over public transportation.
The silver lining: Surrounding neighborhoods like the Allston-Brighton area would see about a 12 percent decrease in traffic. The number of parking spaces needed in Boston would also fall by 48 percent.
Why it matters: As we’ve written about extensively, US cities could be transformed by shared autonomous vehicles. Urban areas similar to Boston can prevent more gridlock by encouraging sharing of self-driving vehicles and continued use of mass transit. To do this, the report recommends lowering prices for autonomous carpoolers, converting parking lots into pick-up and drop-off zones, and creating self-driving-only lanes.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.
And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.
OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora
The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.
Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.
Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.
This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language
A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.