Electric cars and automated vehicles (AVs) are obstacles to the transition to livable cities. Any role they may have in future cities should be subject to intense scrutiny and wide-scale public debate.

 

If every combustion engine automobile is simply replaced with an electric one, then very little has been done to achieve a new urban paradigm. Streets clogged with electric vehicles are still clogged, unpleasant, and dangerous streets. AV transport systems should also not be introduced on a wide scale without serious scrutiny and public debate, something that did not happen when cars first appeared.