The Future of Transportation: Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

United States has long been known be to one of the top contributors to the carbon footprint of the world, ranking only second behind China. Although a lot of policies have been implemented in the past decade or so to bring the emission levels and energy consumption under control, there is still a lot that can be done in this area. Transportation is said to be one of the major contributors to Greenhouse Gases. With new technologies coming up, we are noticing a shift from conventional automobiles to electric and autonomous vehicles. They promise more environment friendly operations, safety, and reliability. Even though they are being hailed as the next best thing in the world of automobiles, people are hesitant to make the switch due to limited information available at this date. This paper attempts to study the extent to which such vehicles will aid to emission reduction efforts, and how that will impact road safety, air quality and the built environment in a major urban area.