Autonomous vehicles to add several thousand dollars to vehicle purchase price and higher incremental costs.

Estimated increased costs of Autonomous vehicle hardware and service to vehicle purchase price.

Made Public Date
12/17/2015
Identifier
2015-SC00356
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Summary Information

Summary

This report explores the impacts that autonomous vehicles are likely to have on transportation planning, discussing autonomous vehicle benefits and costs, predicting their likely development and implementation based on experience with previous vehicle technologies, and explores how they will affect planning decisions, such as road and parking supply.

Costs

Manufacturers will need to recover costs of development, ongoing service (special mapping and software upgrades) and liability, plus earn profits. This suggests that when the technology is mature, self-driving capability will probably add several thousand dollars to vehicle purchase prices, plus a few hundred dollars in annual maintenance and service costs, including annualized costs $1,000 to $3,000 per vehicle. These incremental costs may be partly offset by fuel and insurance savings. Motorists spend on average approximately $2,000 for fuel and $1,000 for insurance per vehicle. If autonomous vehicles reduce fuel consumption by 10% and crash costs by 30%, the total annual savings will average $500, which will not fully offset incremental annual costs.

System Cost

Annualized maintenance and service costs of Autonomous vehicle equipment - $1,000 to $3,000 per vehicle