Philip Burroughs On The Future Of Real Estate And City Planning

You can be excited or flat out scared about the thought, yet a future with autonomous vehicles being the norm is fast approaching. Just this Wednesday, Waymo opened their ride-sharing service to select participants. The passengers applied for the Early Rider Program that opened last year in April. Out of the 20,000 applications they received, over 400 were selected. While it isn’t available to the full public, it’ll get there sooner thanks to this testing field. The majority of the rides have a safety driver in place behind the wheel should the vehicle need assistance, but otherwise, the vehicle is doing all the work.

With this recent development you can be sure to see other companies roll matching services to the public to stay competitive. Yet, as the technology continues to be practiced and improved what does that mean for city planners? The answer is simple: it changes everything.

Road Changes
The cities that test the technology will see the first wave of changes. Research must be completed to see how the city would implement the technology needed to assist the vehicles while still working to ensure that manual drivers do not suffer. In order to function correctly, signs and road markings need to be changed so that the vehicles can sense them with their radars to take the appropriate course of action. City planners need to be careful with these signs to ensure that manual drivers don’t get lost or confused by them.

Cities Will Change
In larger cities, ride-sharing would become a popular form of transportation compared to owning a vehicle. Parking garages would no longer be as needed and instead could be replaced by apartments or other living facilities. With the implementation of rideshare services, McKinsey & Co estimates the demand for parking would lessen by 61 billion square feet. The loss of garages would present a rare opportunity for the real estate market to capitalize on space in already overpopulated cities.

In other locations, you can expect cities to become widespread. With autonomous vehicles, riders no longer need to worry about commuting. Individuals would live further away from their place of employment. They would no longer feel the stress of the drive in or worry about traffic delays. While they are driving, they can catch up on work or read, and if they are exhausted, even sleep. The opportunity here is the switch in mentality to want homes outside of the city, instead of ones within.

As more and more companies continue to explore and improve autonomous technology we can expect to see more of those vehicles on the road. Of course, it will change the way that we commute, but it also changes how cities will become structured now and in the future.

Originally published at ActiveRain.com.

About Philip Burroughs

Through years of hard work, discipline and strong leadership, Philip Burroughs has led his team of salespeople and managers to new heights of success. As the founder and manager of the Used Car Factory, Philip Burroughs has turned his dealership into one of the most respected and revered within the Greater Southern Maryland area. Philip Burroughs is also a major proponent of philanthropy and regularly gives to a variety of charities.