Self-driving cars are increasingly ready for cities. Are cities ready for self-driving cars?
We don't know yet if self-driving cars will take off, and how they will impact our lives if they do-- we will use them more like public transportation, replacing individual car ownership with shared cars? Will we each own our own, and send it home to park while we work or shop? Or will we behave much like we do now, with the exception that "distracted driving" will become a thing of the past? A huge amount of our land is devoted to storing cars while they are not in use-- fewer cars or the ability to store them further away with more ease will have a major impact on our built environment. And yet, very few cities are considering this in their planning. The Oregonian has more.
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For the state, the arrival of self-driving cars means re-thinking just about every piece of its roadway oversight. The Oregon DMV, for example, would need to consider how Oregon’s rules of the road apply. Does a driver even need to be licensed to use a fully autonomous vehicle? Is that driver responsible in the event of a crash?”