TY - JOUR
T1 - It's up to us
T2 - Policies to improve climate outcomes from automated vehicles
AU - Greenwald, Judith M.
AU - Kornhauser, Alain
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment for supporting this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/4
Y1 - 2019/4
N2 - Vehicle automation is coming, but environmental and energy imperatives are NOT what's motivating it. In fact, its energy and environmental outcomes are deeply uncertain. The promise of autonomous vehicles (AVs) is greater safety and mobility. The question is: How do we achieve that promise while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and saving energy? Future AV scenarios range widely, from dramatically higher to dramatically lower GHG emissions. Fortunately, the best case for the environment is also the best case for business, for the economy, and for safe and affordable mobility: autonomous Taxi fleets that operate clean vehicles, encourage ridesharing, and are integrated with other public and private transportation modes. Governments, businesses, drivers and riders make decisions that can increase or decrease the likelihood of the best-case scenario. The stakes are very high, as the transportation sector is now the largest source of U.S. GHG emissions. Emissions are equal to (1) emissions per-vehicle-mile, multiplied by (2) vehicle-miles traveled (VMT). This paper explores the business, technology and behavioral decisions with respect to automation that have the greatest impact along these two dimensions. It then identifies policy interventions that could influence these key decisions to achieve the best GHG outcomes. AVs are an important international issue, although this paper is focused on the United States.
AB - Vehicle automation is coming, but environmental and energy imperatives are NOT what's motivating it. In fact, its energy and environmental outcomes are deeply uncertain. The promise of autonomous vehicles (AVs) is greater safety and mobility. The question is: How do we achieve that promise while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and saving energy? Future AV scenarios range widely, from dramatically higher to dramatically lower GHG emissions. Fortunately, the best case for the environment is also the best case for business, for the economy, and for safe and affordable mobility: autonomous Taxi fleets that operate clean vehicles, encourage ridesharing, and are integrated with other public and private transportation modes. Governments, businesses, drivers and riders make decisions that can increase or decrease the likelihood of the best-case scenario. The stakes are very high, as the transportation sector is now the largest source of U.S. GHG emissions. Emissions are equal to (1) emissions per-vehicle-mile, multiplied by (2) vehicle-miles traveled (VMT). This paper explores the business, technology and behavioral decisions with respect to automation that have the greatest impact along these two dimensions. It then identifies policy interventions that could influence these key decisions to achieve the best GHG outcomes. AVs are an important international issue, although this paper is focused on the United States.
KW - Autonomous vehicles
KW - Climate policy
KW - Energy policy
KW - Environmental policy
KW - Transportation policy
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U2 - 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.12.017
DO - 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.12.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85059460444
SN - 0301-4215
VL - 127
SP - 445
EP - 451
JO - Energy Policy
JF - Energy Policy
ER -