The era of autonomous cars is coming, just around the corner I would say. We have no doubt that the arrival of the autonomous condition will contribute a lot to the scarcity of accidents, as well as to the correct and fluid traffic on the roads, making them more viable and effective, and most importantly, saving us time on the way to work. But while all that is going on, MIT has come to an important conclusion about carpooling and traffic congestion on our roads. So, let's find out what MIT thinks about carpooling and how this affects our daily lives.
Services like Uber or Lyft have become very popular, and they are beneficial in all areas, both in terms of pollution and in the sections referring to traffic congestion on the roads. For this reason, MIT has devoted itself to analyzing how car sharing influences traffic in large cities, and from the hand of Professor Daniela Rus they have reached very interesting conclusions.
For this they have used New York City as a guinea pig. This city has no less than 14.000 taxis, which also contribute to pollution and congestion. According to the algorithms, 95% of the demand for taxis could be satisfied with 2.000 vehicles with a capacity of ten people. But the most relevant thing is that 98% of this demand could also be satisfied with 3.000 four-passenger cars of the Uber and Lyft type, that is, sharing a vehicle between strangers.
This study is not aimed at ruining the job of taxi drivers, but at better understanding the behavior of people and cars for individual use. Coming to the final conclusion that if all users shared their vehicles, traffic in New York would be reduced by up to 75%.