How Self-Driving Cars Could Transform the Suburbs

Self-driving cars are becoming a real thing. As they rise in popularity, they’re likely to shake up the way we move, the way we cope with age and disability, and the way things look and feel in our cities and suburbs.

How? First, let’s distinguish between the actual developments and the hype in the self-driving car world. Then let’s look at the open questions, and the kinds of changes some observers see coming.

First, Could Autonomous Vehicles Really Become Normal?

Tesla’s electric cars offer some degree of AI-based autonomy, although Elon Musk’s promises of “full self-driving” have yet to pan out. Mostly, the successful companies are focusing on trucks, buses, shuttles and cabs.

Aurora Innovation is a Pittsburgh-based autonomous vehicle company. The founders include people from Google’s Waymo self-driving project and autonomy specialists from Tesla and Uber.

No doubt, Aurora is making significant strides in the industry. Driverless trucks run by Aurora and FedEx have already logged 60,000 miles in Texas. Aurora also runs a test fleet of Toyota robotic taxis.

Could Self-Driving Cars Make It Easier to Age in Place?

If self-driving cars — or even robotaxis — become popular, then personal cars won’t be so important. And as autonomous ride services make inroads, they could be a game-changer for seniors and the disabled community.

Robotic modes of transit could deliver people to their routine medical checkups, social gatherings, and grocery stores. This would make it so much easier for people to remain independent, yet connected.

People in the outer suburbs and rural towns would have night and weekend options public transit doesn’t offer. Many rural communities have low access to social resources. AVs could help.

Could Self-Driving Cars Bring Down Housing Costs?

This is entirely plausible.

Imagine cars kept in collective parking areas, not at homes. Imagine the reduced need for personal garages, curbside spaces, and driveways. Wouldn’t this lifestyle shift make houses and multi-unit properties cheaper to build?

Plus, those unnecessary parking spots could allow for more units of housing — helping the supply of homes keep up with demand.

So, housing costs could potentially come down with the gradual adoption of robotic cars.

What Would AVs Do To Public Transit Costs?

Providing access to autonomous vehicles with human drivers supervising the rides is not cheap. But it is already possible to do for the same cost as the least efficient end of the public-transit spectrum.

As machine learning gets better, cities and towns might begin to lean into AI-driven vehicles. This would reduce demand for public transit to some extent.

Columbus, Ohio has a federal grant to do something much like what public transit does already. The city is using autonomous buses to connect riders from Linden, a low-income area, to the many job sites available in Easton.

How Would Autonomous Cars Affect Suburban Sprawl?

Cities can reduce the land allotted for parking spaces, while AVs go out to the suburbs to park themselves. That alone would induce some degree of sprawl.

Plus, increasing the mobility options for suburbanites will support further commercial development in the suburbs.

Because AVs use more route area than trains do, they could create more reasons to pave land and increase sprawl, too.

AVs have their pros and cons, no doubt, as most tech advancements do. Whether the pros outweigh the cons is a complex question, and depends on the quality of infrastructure planning.

Best Use Case So Far? Ride goMARTI.

Minnesota’s Autonomous Rural Transit Initiative (goMARTI) is a pilot project. By partnering with May Mobility Inc., goMARTI has outfitted a fleet of five Toyota Sienna SUVs as autonomous vehicles (AVs). Of these five driverless vehicles, three comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and are outfitted for wheelchair-using riders.

The (now free) service can be hailed by a phone call or the app. The shuttles have so far been helping hundreds of people get around Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

The Siennas can handle most of their routes without a human driver taking over. But to ensure safety and to help elderly and disabled passengers, human operators are present.

Looks like self-driving cars are already reshaping the future of suburban living.

Supporting References

Christina Plerhoples Stacy and Brady Meixell for the Urban Institute, via Urban.org: Urban Wire – Self-Driving Cars Could Harm Low-Income People if We Don’t Prepare for Their Rise (Sep. 14, 2018).

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Adam Minter for Bloomberg L.P via The Washington Post: Self-Driving Cars Are a Natural Fit for Rural America (Dec. 22, 2022).

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