Automotive News Canada - July 2019 - 11

11

* JULY 2019

Dealers take note: Autonomous vehicles are coming for you
SIDEWALK LABS' LONG-AWAITED
master plan for a proposed hightech neighbourhood in Toronto
included a notable admission
from the company: Self-driving
cars might make traffic congestion in cities a whole lot worse.
And the Google affiliate's proposed solution could have a
massive impact on the viability of
dealerships in urban areas.
It's a risk many others have
pointed out. But it's notable
coming from Sidewalk, which
sees autonomous vehicles as
crucial to its long-term goal of
transforming urban design to be
more sustainable and pedestrian-friendly.
"If self-driving vehicles are
individually owned and free to
roam the streets without a driver,
then car ownership - and congestion -
might soar,"
Curbing
the Sidewalk
congestion
plan reads.
means less
"But if
private-vehicle self-driving
vehicles are
ownership,
integrated
which means into the
enviless business urban
ronment and
for car dealers. public transit
network with
thoughtful policies that encourage fleets of shared trips and
people-first street designs, they
can become part of a next-generation mobility system."
In other words, cities of the
future must discourage private
ownership of autonomous vehicles, as well as nonautonomous
vehicles, to solve the congestion
plaguing major cities worldwide.
That echoes concerns raised
in a report this year by University
of California, Santa Cruz
Professor Adam Millard-Ball. The
study, released in the journal
Transport Policy, found that
autonomous vehicles, when not
in use by a rider, would in many
cases choose to slowly cruise
around streets to "kill time."
Driving, in many cases, would be
a more economically viable
option than parking, given high
parking prices in urban centres.
How bad could things get?
Using a traffic-simulation model,
Millard-Ball found that traffic in
downtown San Francisco could
crawl to as low as two mph (3.2
km/h) with the addition of just
2,000 or so self-driving vehicles.
Millard-Ball suggests cities
enact congestion pricing -
essentially, a fee for vehicles to
enter a city's centre - as a
potential solution, one already
applied in some cities. London,
for instance, has a fee of £11.50
(Cdn $19.27) for vehicles to
enter the core of the city during
peak hours on weekdays.
Sidewalk, meanwhile, suggests cities, including Toronto
invest heavily in their transit systems to discourage the use of
private vehicles and make it easier for residents to use ride-hailing
services, electric scooters, bikes
and other forms of transportation.
The end goal, then, is to
reduce vehicle ownership rates in
cities. From an urban development perspective as well as an
environmental one, that makes
sense. Reducing congestion
would make cities more livable

FROM TORONTO

JOHN IRWIN

COMMENT
and reduce greenhouse-gas
emissions.
But for dealers who rely on
new-vehicle sales in urban areas,
that could spell trouble. Fewer
people owning vehicles means
fewer customers. While, as

Sidewalk noted, personal car
ownership will never disappear, a
shrinking market could spell
doom for some dealers.
We don't profess to have the
long-term answer for dealers, but
we do know it's important for
them to stay aware of the
debates that cities such as
Toronto will have over the future
of urban development. Even if
Sidewalk's plans fail to get
approved, conversations about
how to reduce traffic congestion
will continue, and they will likely
always return to putting fewer
vehicles the roads. - ANC

To prevent congestion from empty autonomous vehicles
loitering in Sidewalk Labs' proposed Toronto neighbourhood,
the recommendation is more public transit, scooters and
ride-hailing services, but not private vehicle ownership.
How do car dealers fit into the plan? I L L U S T R AT I O N : S I D E WA L K L A B S

CDK ONE-EIGHTY.
A SINGLE SOLUTION TO

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BECAUSE WE'RE

DEALER pEOPLE.

Stephen P., Dealer Representative

©2019 CDK Global (Canada) LLC/ CDK Global is a registered trademark of CDK Global, LLC. 19-1526

At CDK Global, we serve your business by optimizing your Front Office
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Automotive News Canada - July 2019

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