Today’s revolution in controlled autonomous vehicles (CAV) combines advances in artificial intelligence and electric car technology with the disruptive hire model of firms like Uber. Though definitions of CAVs vary from a car controlled totally by computer to one with a level of automation enabling humans to drive more safely, on one thing all agree: CAV is set to transform how people, cars and the city interact. 

The onset of CAVs has brought a flurry of excited predictions about how cities of the future might look. Google, a leading developer of CAV technology, has predicted that in the car-dominated US, driverless cars could release the country’s estimated 105 million parking spaces for new schools, hospitals, parks and housing with a combined size “bigger than Connecticut”.

“Driverless cars could remove the pedestrian defences conventionally required and open up the space for all manner of recreational pursuits”

David Rudlin, Urbed