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Self-driving cars can significantly reduce the need for parking space, which in itself is not great for the environment and causes many transit distances to be

Self-driving cars can significantly reduce the need for parking space, which in itself is not great for the environment and causes many transit distances to be longer. I think it's possible that self driving cars could increase total driving like you explain, but i think it's also possible that they will drive down car ownership. Once you pay primarily based on usage (parking, insurance, depreciation are mostly fixed costs), you are more likely to drive sparingly.

ryanianian 9y ago
Self-driving in itself won't help, but it's much more feasible for a fully autonomous system of cars to be totally electric since you can plan for the charging logistics as part of the system's design. A walkable, pro-self-driving-car city could also theoretically tax self-driving-car rides to offset environmental impact.