BERLIN, Germany - Transportation experts say car-congested cities could become a thing of the past, provided people are prepared to ride-share with a robot driver.
A study published Thursday (April 23) by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggests that widespread use of "taxibots" could cut by 90% the number of cars needed to perform the same number of journeys per day.
Researchers used data from Lisbon, Portugal, to simulate how such self-driving, communal cabs would affect traffic. Even with only one passenger per ride and no complementary public transport, the number of cars still dropped by 77%.