Researchers say Autonomous Vehicles could hit Austin’s roads by 2020

Commercial real estate firm CBRE predicts Austin and other major Texas cities will be among the first to see Autonomous cars on the road.
CBRE researcher Andrea Cross said you could start seeing them rolling right along side as soon as 2020 and with that change, more would come in terms of infrastructure and city growth.
“Part of that is due to the fact that autonomous vehicles don’t need to park next to where someone works, or where they’re shopping or eating.” She continued, “they can relocate themselves to a lower cost outlying area where they can be charged when demand is lower for them.”
That means parking garages and other spaces around town can be turned into something else, said Park, like apartments or offices. This also means that housing could see a shift as well. Through her research, Park found millennials can and do tolerate a longer work commute if they aren’t the ones driving. Add that to autonomous vehicles and she says we could see people buying homes farther away for work hubs like Downtown Austin.
But that is a far look, Park explained that by 2030 they expect about 15{c2fdda2a9de60a0be0cbaa4f208e91401fe1a19673e3bdabdfd10f7d36528f09} of the hours spent on the road to be driven by autonomous vehicles. However she said, while that sounds small, rideshare companies Uber and Lyft account for about 2{c2fdda2a9de60a0be0cbaa4f208e91401fe1a19673e3bdabdfd10f7d36528f09} of miles traveled and they’ve still made drastic impacts in how people get around.