Working from self-driving cars

Once automatic vehicles (AV) are available, working from self-driving cars (WFC) will be an option. It allows firms to socialize office land costs to road infrastructure used by AV’s mobile offices. Employees, in turn, can switch wasted commuting time into working and substitute office hours. The authors model employers’ offers and employees’ discrete choice of WFC contracts and decisions on WFC hours, considering heterogeneous preferences for WFC. The authors further perform Monte Carlo studies for the U.S. and Germany to quantify these decisions, assess consequences on distances traveled and traffic-related externalities, and evaluate whether transport pricing can reduce the latter. The authors' findings suggest that WFC is a likely feature of tomorrow’s world, but it comes at the cost of induced traffic and traffic-related externalities. Eventually, the authors see that standard transport-policy instruments on car use, traveling, and parking affect the number of mobile employees, i.e., those with WFC contracts, but do not lower distances traveled per mobile employee. Given these tentative findings, a policy to lower traffic and emissions shall primarily focus on avoiding WFC contracts. Once WFC contracts exist, standard policy instruments to reduce travel may need to be revised.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103785
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856423002057
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09658564
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Hirte, Georg
  • 0000-0002-9937-8753
  • Laes, Renée
  • Gerike, Regine
  • 0000-0002-8063-6636
• Publication Date: 2023-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 103785
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
  • Volume: 176
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0965-8564
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Employees; Heterogeneity; Level 5 driving automation; Technological innovations; Telecommuting; Transportation policy
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Policy; Society; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01902782
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 20 2023 3:43PM