I am an environmentalist‘s worst nightmare - I own 9 cars and 3 motorbikes and unashamedly love driving them. However, in all other respects I consider myself an environmentalist but accept that I’m possibly a hypocrite. At least I am honest about it. I am also an engineer with 35+yrs experience and have been following the alternative fuel and autonomous cars debate with interest.
The problem is that there are simply too many cars on the road. Bring that down significantly and everything improves. The only way to do that is to encourage less travel (home working) and significantly improve public transport. I’m not actually suggesting that public transport should be free but if it was, and also fit for purpose, then everyone would want to use it and car ownership for the masses would be a thing of the past.
Then fuel buses and lorries with hydrogen and the smaller remaining vehicles with either electricity or hydrogen. This gives people with driveways the option to refill EV’s overnight and those with only street parking to fill up with hydrogen if they can afford it.
Leave autonomous cars for disabled people. Never for public transport. I’m sure that tube trains could run without drivers but it’s a small price to pay for the reassurance of knowing there’s a human being up front.
David
