Heads Up, Real Estate World, Driverless Cars Are Coming

NEW YORK CITY—With BMW and the maker of the Mercedes-Benz joining forces to work on technology for driverless cars, everyday use of this technology is around the corner. Matt Caywood, CEO of TransitScreen, says this will affect commercial real estate. His company works closely with the real estate industry. It provides real-time, live information about public and private transportation and shared mobility that serves specific buildings.

Caywood divides driverless vehicles into two categories:

(1) Low-speed autonomous shuttles run on a single route. They are often corporate shuttles carrying people back and forth from offices to public transit nodes. May Mobility and Local Motors are companies rolling out these driverless options.

He sees advancements with the low-speed driverless vehicles for places where people want to go which might not all be adjacent to transit. Caywood cites places in Manhattan such as the Far West Side, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Roosevelt Island and Long Island City. “It doesn’t have to be a super expensive Second Avenue subway or Penn Station,” he says. “As long as it’s providing people with enough options to get from that site, for example Brooklyn Navy Yard with an autonomous shuttle, and with e-bike shares, you can zip over to Brooklyn Heights or Atlantic Avenue in 10 minutes.”

Caywood states corporate shuttles can be expensive when adding up labor costs. “Autonomous shuttles can run cheaply and all year round,” he states. “I think we’re going to start seeing these first mile/last mile shuttles going autonomous pretty quickly in and around the tri-state area.”

He comments this could unlock more real estate values throughout the rest of the region. Plus, it doesn’t require the costs with digging up ground, laying tracks or building infrastructure. He describes the technology as “a smart car with cameras and sensors that might cost what an ordinary bus would, maybe $50,000 to $100,000.”

(2) High-speed autonomous vehicles are the individual passenger cars similar to what most people drive today. They now resemble cruise control, considered luxury features. For example, consumers can purchase the Mercedes-Benz E-Class or BMW 5 series with driver assistance packages. Technology can provide certain automated features, such as parallel parking and auto-pilot steering and speed control.

Caywood notes to get these vehicles fully driverless will take longer to develop than the low-speed autonomous shuttles. These cars would be an advantage for suburban areas, helping to increase real estate values further away from urban centers with faster travel time and more options.

However, the transportation information entrepreneur warns planning ahead for this technology is critical. Within dense urban areas, it could increase traffic, congestion and parking problems. This would require appropriate charges for driving and parking within the city.

“Very strong leadership would need to be ahead of this,” warns Caywood. “People don’t worry about things until it becomes a problem. At that point it becomes a really big problem.”

“The BMW and Mercedes projects should be a wake-up call to leaders to start anticipating this now,” he adds.

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