CTS Catalyst summarizes some of the discussion from the recent Conference Autonomous vehicles: The legal and policy road ahead

… David Levinson hypothesized some possible directions:

• Autonomous vehicles enable more car sharing. Instead of the sunk cost of car ownership, people pay the marginal cost per trip—and thus make fewer trips.

• Shared cars can be right-sized for any given trip, so fewer large cars are needed. Increased safety reassures people about driving smaller cars.

• Smaller cars travel closely together on narrower lanes, so capacity increases.

• As networks get faster, people choose to travel farther. Cities decentralize and more megacities and “placeless places” develop.

• At the same time, inner cities get denser, as less space is needed for parking and garages.

• With lower labor costs, transit becomes more cost-effective.

• Driverless trucks lower delivery costs. Combined with drones, robotics, and online shopping, retail shopping declines.