How cities can benefit from automated driving

People commuting to work from city suburbs in ten to 15 years time will, according to Tschiesner, call driverless shuttles via an app and be able to travel at prices comparable to those of public transport. Self-driving vehicles however have two advantages over busses and trains: They offer greater privacy and take passengers straight to their destination. Tschiesner believes public transport will nevertheless still play an important role in about 20 years time: “Should every single commuter switch from travelling by bus or train to calling an automated vehicle, then there’ll be gridlock.”

To prevent this from happening, towns and cities will have to intervene and regulate the use of autonomous vehicles. This could be done via road-user charges says Tschiesner. In London there is already a congestion charge that applies to city districts with a high volume of traffic at certain times. It is designed to encourage commuters to take public transport rather than using a car. “The use of automated vehicles will probably be controlled using similar incentive schemes,” believes Tschiesner. “Multiple modes of transport will ensue,” continued Tschiesner. To avoid congestion charges, commuters will take the light railway to a station and then perhaps continue in an automated shuttle to their destination.

Congestion charges will however play a part in keeping a city’s income stable. In Hamburg for example, 30 million euro flow into its coffers from traffic fines, including parking tickets. In Stuttgart, 11 million euro is accrued from speed cameras. The income from road traffic fines will sink dramatically when autonomous vehicles start dominating the cityscape: They will always park correctly in parking spaces and keep to speed limits.

Andreas Tschiesner additionally believes that the towns and cities themselves will offer automated driving services. “The regulatory sovereignty over traffic lies with the city authorities anyway. It’s why they’ll orchestrate self-driving cars via traffic control centers.” Cities could take advantage of the existing traffic control structures and the resulting accompanying competencies to operate own rental stations that not only offer driverless cars but also e-scooters and e-bikes.

The developments in the mobility sector will also be noticed within the job market. Tschiesner has researched the subject together with the city of Berlin. “Cities will basically employ not only fewer bus and train drivers but also civil servants in the public order and traffic departments,” he says. But his study concludes, “The bottom line is that there will not be less jobs but more.”

According to the expert, additional computer scientists will be required in the automotive industry and at mobility service providers. In urban areas, people will be needed in the already mentioned traffic control centers for autonomous vehicles. New jobs will also be created in vehicle services and fleet management. Tschiesner also expects a greater demand for personnel in the cleaning services sector as interior hygiene plays an important role in car sharing.

When vehicles are steering themselves through traffic, passengers will have time for other things. According to Tschiesner, during the course of a single year, every EU citizen spends just under 40 minutes a day in a vehicle — frequently a car. “If half of the time could be spent working, for example dealing with mails, an extra one billion euro added value would be created every day,” he says. If passengers preferred to be entertained or shop online rather than work then media companies and eCommerce businesses would profit.

Roadside stores and restaurants that live from through traffic could be disadvantaged. Especially as passengers will enter a specific destination into the onboard computer in autonomous vehicles — without planning any spontaneous stopovers. To nevertheless make themselves known, local businesses could take advantage of location-based services. In doing so, personalized and location-specific advertising is displayed on the screens in the self-driving vehicles — and for example promote a restaurant or store in the vicinity that matches the interests of the respective passenger. “We see these data-based services as a big growing market,” says Tschiesner.