Traffic jams and limited road infrastructure (with no space for more, so use needs to be optimized) are a PITA in Asia. It isn't really the cost of the taxi drivers (who are increasingly becoming scarce as young people choose better careers). Coupled with authoritarian governments that can push changes more readily than western governments, and Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo are easily on their way in this direction.
why would congestion change if all the drivers were fully autonomous? It's one thing to have a fully autonomous driver, but having them coordinate perfectly to have good throughput even in dense traffic conditions is another altogether. I think this second goal is much farther off and if the articles I've read on autonomous vehicles is any indication I expect they will drive more cautiously and slowly than most human drivers when they finally "go live" in a widespread fashion
> if the articles I've read on autonomous vehicles is any indication I expect they will drive more cautiously and slowly than most human drivers when they finally "go live" in a widespread fashion
They won't get stuck at left turns, on-ramps and rotarys due to an inability to use the skinny pedal to its full capacity.
That won't solve the sheer numbers problem but it's probably a solid sized constant factors improvement.
> As long as there are still some vehicles with human drivers on the roadways
You understand. If the government can tell you that you can only drive even or odd days, tell you that you can't drive at all (and must use self driving cars inside the 4th or even 5th ring road) is a very distinct possibility.
I fail to see how driverless cars make any of that better. Congestion might even get worse as people might be willing to wait longer if that means they can be “productive” doing something else in the car.
