Autonomous vehicles are cost-effective when used as taxis

• DOI: 10.1186/s40621-018-0153-z
• Publication Date: 2018-04-30T12:32:17Z
• Authors: Isaac G. Freedman; Ellen Kim; Peter A. Muennig
• Keywords: Taxis; SAFER

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will radically re-shape the health and well-being of people in United States good ways bad. We set out to estimate a reasonable time-to-adoption using cost-effectivenessmodels point at which AVs become reasonably safe affordable for widespread adoption.We used Waymo data (previously, Google Self-Driving Car Project) microsimulation model explore projected costs safety issues today five years from get sense speed consumer adoption were brought market.The private use was associated with an ICER 1,396,110/QALY gained today, figure that would decline 173,890/QALY 5-years future. However, AV taxis are both less expensive potentially already safer than human-piloted taxis.While not unlikely be family any time soon, it make economic adopt them as today. Legislation enhancing benefits while mitigating potential harmful impacts is needed some urgency.