The next time you get in cab, there may not be anyone driving for you. A study, published yesterday by Jeffrey Greenblatt and Samveg Saxena of the Lawrence Berkeley National Library on the website nature climate change, indicates that the taxi industry may be one of the first to be operated autonomously.
According to Greenblatt and Saxena's work, most of the costs incurred by a taxi involve gas, upkeep, and the payment of driver. Using their methodology, they posit that even today, robot drivers could bring big savings and lower fares:
"In New York City in 2005, only 24 percent of taxi fares went toward vehicle costs, with 57 percent going to drivers ... driver income constitutes $97,600 per year, which could more than cover the incremental cost of autonomous vehicle technology [estimated at $150,000]. Even using current costs, if financed using identical model assumptions for vehicle capital, this would amount to $36,500 per year, 37 percent of New York City taxi driver income and 21 percent of total taxi fares. Therefore, autonomous taxis could replace current taxis at current autonomous vehicle costs and possibly even lower fares, providing an important early market niche."
Aside from the big financial benfits, their study shows that autonomous cars could cut down on gas consumption considerably according to CBS:
"If 5 percent of 2030 vehicle sales (about 800,000 vehicles) were shifted to autonomous taxis, the study found that would save about 7 million barrels of oil per year and reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by between 2.1 and 2.4 million metric tons of CO2 per year, equal to the emissions savings from more than 1,000 two-megawatt wind turbines."
Greenblatt and Saxena's idea isn't as outlandish as some may believe. Big companies like Uber and Google have been pushing for automated drivers for years now.
