Automation and Sustainable urban Transport

The transition to an automated transport paradigm is a change of unparalleled dimensions. Disrupting a century-long driver-centric mobility status quo will not be an uncomplicated and unimpactful technological triumph but a multi-dimensional mega-shift for the way our cities, societies, livelihoods and our very planet function. autonomous vehicles (AVs) will likely have a critical impact on every sphere of sustainability that we need to proactively try to assess now, that there is still time, to make changes and push towards different directions. Since we are experiencing more and more transport-sensitive climate change and resilience threats we need to use the transformative powers of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in general, and vehicle automation in particular, responsibly so that we craft pathways to more liveable futures. This chapter provides an improved understanding of how transport automation can be linked to the future of our environmental, economic and societal resource preservation. It will also try to predict how automated transport can be more sustainable when we already know about the uneasy alignment of AV-centric technology with genuine sustainability goals because of their possibly contradictory roles and priorities. More specifically, key automated transport issues that represent likely sustainability challenges and opportunities (or both) including motor traffic congestion, local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, accident prevention and traffic safety, social inclusion and accessibility, employment market disruption, privacy and cybersecurity are ‘benchmarked’ against the triple bottom line and discussed in detail. The chapter suggests that automation’s pathway for promoting sustainable urban transport futures depends on its ability to be effectively packaged with less hyped but equally transformative functionalities around connectivity, alternative fuelling, public transport and multimodality. Change can be positive only if it can be holistic.