The End Of Parked Cars?

Osma Ahvenlampi argues robocars could improve downtown parking:

Lets accept as a given that it'll take a while before we'll be ready for automated cars carrying passengers around on streets where people are driving, moving at regular traffic speeds. But what about having empty cars move themselves through preassigned routes, on specific lanes, at lower speeds, yielding to all human traffic? How many municipalities suffer from too many cars around bad enough to consider arranging for those special routes? I'm guessing there are a few.

Koushik Dutta brainstorms some consequences of driverless cars. Sebastian Thrun's TED talk earlier this year covered how much money we waste sitting in traffic and how many accidents are a result of human error. Brad Templeton, a robotic car strategist, ran the numbers:

Studies suggest that 40% of fatal accidents involve drunk driving and that 80% of all accidents are the result of driver inattention. Almost 60% of fatal accidents are single-vehicle, 70% of those involving a car leaving the road, often due to mistake, sleep or alcohol. 30% of fatalities involve alcohol impairment, over 50% have some alcohol involved.

Yglesias critiques Google's patents on driverless cars.