Autonomous Shared Mobility & the Cities of Tomorrow

Abstract

“Anyone who only thinks of technology, has not yet recognized that autonomous driving will change our society.” says Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG, and indicates to what the future of mobility will look like. Autonomous and shared mobility is the most talked about topic in the world of transport today. Self-driving shared vehicles will have a huge impact on urban life as they will begin to question the distinction between private and public transportation modes. This mobility trend will help in reducing time of travel with almost 80 percent fewer cars. The reduction in the number of cars on road will lead to changes in environment, traffic, congestion issues, efficiency, cost of road building and maintaining, urban sprawl and parking. With fewer cars, vast amount of land under parking, which is observed quite often in most cities today, could be freed for other public uses, thus changing the urban form of the city as we know it. Therefore, it is time for Transport Planners and Urban Designers to concentrate on this field of development and investigate the possible impact of Autonomous mobility on the city and space to reap maximum benefits in future. This project will explore the consequences of this mobility trend through scenario based studies with a thorough analysis of the possibilities for the city of Amsterdam and speculate how this will transform the city in future.