Transportation and Health Resource Hub - New Mobility

Autonomous vehicles and public health

This report suggests that while autonomous vehicles (AVs) can increase some health risks (air pollution, noise, and sedentarism), proper regulation can reduce motor vehicle crashes and associated heath impacts, and reshape cities to promote healthy urban environments. Creating a Public Health framework and implementing policy recommendations for autonomous vehicles that include fully electric vehicles in a system of ridesharing and ridesplitting before the complete introduction of AVs into the market will yield public health benefits.