Robocar and Urban Space Evolution: City changes in the age of autonomous cars

How can we create more human-centered, resilient, and sustainable cities in the tech age? What are the biggest and most likely spatial changes that autonomous vehicles will bring in cities? To what extent do the spatial opportunities created by automated mobility respond to current urban issues and what is the role of urban design and spatial planning in this debate?

To date, the topic of autonomous cars – robocars – has been mainly approached by car industries, technology companies and transport planning groups. This publication—the result of an international symposium organized by Urban Design at TU Delft—brings a complementary approach by adding an urban design and spatial planning perspective, exploring robocars as a social and spatial project. In this way, Robocar and Urban Space Symposium outlines the possible relation between autonomous cars and cities, namely the potential opportunities they can create, such as the space made available if robocars could park themselves. This publication aims to open a debate on a series of questions: What are the biggest and most likely spatial changes robocars can create and how do they contribute directly and indirectly to a better urban environment and everyday life?  to which extent the spatial opportunities created by robocars can respond to current urban issues (such as growth, climate change and environmental quality, equity, energy transition and automation) through design? How should urban space be planned and redesigned, so that the spatial opportunities created by autonomous mobility can contribute to the key urban issues?

With contributions by: David Hamers, Daniëlle Snellen, Anton van Hoorn, Kersten Nabielek, Joost Tennekes & Lia van den Broek, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency; Dominic Stead; Rients Dijkstra and Anca Ioana Ionescu (Forgaci); Salvador Rueda; Nico Larco; Mathias Mittregger and Emilia Bruck; and Víctor Muñoz Sanz.