Eno’s report on Autonomous Vehicles explores how deployment of robotaxis will affect labor, safety, equity, and vehicle miles traveled. Robotaxis are already operating on roadways in several U.S. cities and deployment is poised to expand. The current costs and technological capabilities of AVs have allowed for deployment in fleets of robotaxis within high-density, geofenced environments. AVs are not currently available as universally capable vehicles for personal ownership.

This paper argues that the high fixed costs to procure or build AVs and create the necessary digital infrastructure for their operations create economic conditions quite different from those of human-driven transportation network company vehicles. Overall, the different cost and capabilities are likely to create a complementary relationship between robotaxis and human TNC drivers, rather than resulting in fully substitutable modes.

Given the likelihood that robotaxis, human driven taxis, and personally owned, human driven vehicles will share the roadways for the foreseeable future, thoughtful consideration of how that coexistence is structured will help ensure that mobility benefits are enjoyed by riders to the extent possible. The integration of human-driven and robotaxi fleets on a single network will allow riders to choose between autonomous and human-driven vehicles, maximizing cost competition and expanding rider benefits. Human drivers will also benefit from maintaining access to rider demand in hybrid networks and being able to compete for trips. Decisions about network structures and incentives will determine whether the benefits of autonomous technology are spread across socioeconomic and geographic groups and help to fill in gaps in the existing transportation network.

There is great potential for benefits from AV deployments, but those benefits are not guaranteed nor will they necessarily be evenly distributed. Decisions about network structures and incentives will determine the extent to which automation of driving benefits spread across socioeconomic and geographic groups, and the extent to which AVs fill gaps in the existing transportation network. These policy decisions will also shape the role human drivers continue to play.

This paper explores early deployments of robotaxis in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin to understand how robotaxis will affect cities and human drivers, and how choices made by policy makers and technology companies will affect outcomes and the extent to which autonomous mobility will promote safety and transportation access.