The Promise and Perils of Autonomous Vehicle Technology

AVs have the potential to substantially affect safety, mobility, congestion,
land use, and the environment. In this chapter, we discuss
some of the social costs of transportation and how AVs could affect
these costs. In general, we find that AV technology has the potential
to substantially reduce many of the existing negative externalities
of personal automobile use and create some additional benefits
in increased mobility and improving land use. While there are some
important disadvantages, we find these are generally outweighed by
the advantages.

However, the extent to which the specific benefit accrues to the
purchaser of the car, rather than the public as a whole, varies by the
benefit. For example, the extent to which this technology can reduce
the cost of congestion (by allowing a driver to attend to other tasks)
will accrue to the driver. On the other hand, the extent to which the
technology can generally reduce congestion on the roads accrues to the
general motoring public, not the purchaser. This is important because
it will affect the business model for the introduction of many of these
technologies, and whether subsidies or taxes are appropriate to align
private and public costs.

Research by : http://www.rand.org/