Autonomous taxis could greatly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions of US light-duty vehicles

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are conveyances to move passengers or freight without human intervention. AVs are potentially disruptive both technologically and socially(1-3), with claimed benefits including increased safety, road utilization, driver productivity and energy savings(1-6). Here we estimate 2014 and 2030 greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions and costs of autonomous taxis (ATs), a class of fully autonomous(7,8) shared AVs likely to gain rapid early market share, through three synergistic effiects: (1) future decreases in electricity GHG emissions intensity, (2) smaller vehicle sizes resulting from trip-specific AT deployment, and (3) higher annual vehicle-miles travelled (VMT), increasing high-efficiency (especially battery-electric) vehicle cost-effiectiveness. Combined, these factors could result in decreased US per-mile GHG emissions in 2030 per AT deployed of 87-94% below current conventionally driven vehicles (CDVs), and 63-82% below projected 2030 hybrid vehicles(9), without including other energy-saving benefits of AVs. With these substantial GHG savings, ATs could enable GHG reductions even if total VMT, average speed and vehicle size increased substantially. Oil consumption would also be reduced by nearly 100%.