The driverless cars have been explored by car manufacturers over the years, but are still struggling to establish themselves: indeed, even if autonomous technology advances every day, legal restrictions will surely prevent us from seeing them en masse on our roads.

And yet, from the beginning of the 2022 academic year, level three autonomous driving is allowed in France. But the Traffic Code also stipulates that in the event of an accident or violation, car manufacturers are responsible! A new study that points to polluting emissions from driverless carseven more to bring to an end.

Cars: MIT Research

But why do autonomous cars pollute more than traditional thermal cars? The question is asked a study by two MIT researchers (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the USA, published in a scientific journal IEEE Micro.

According to them, there are self-driving cars causing massive emissions of greenhouse gasesbecause they require a significant computing power. Two researchers have developed a model to measure pollutant emissions created by on-board computers in autonomous vehicles.

Self-driving cars pollute more than data centers

Indeed, autonomous cars are equipped with several cameras, radars and sensors, all of which require enormous computing power to analyze this data and allow you to control the car autonomously and in complete safety.

Different scenarios were considered: if the autonomous vehicles circulate for one hour a day, they will consume 0.84 kW of electricity every day. If you imagine that their use will become widespread in the world, it will be a billion autonomous vehicles polluting emissions equivalent, if not better, to all data centers worldwide.

Autonomous cars: electricity production will be decarbonized

To reducecarbon footprint autonomous and smart vehicles, it is necessary to look at how electricity is produced in different countries of the world. Indeed, with the exception of some countries that have opted for nuclear power, such as France, electricity production is the main emitter of greenhouse gases.

Assuming that efforts to decarbonize energy production do not accelerate, vehicles will need to be equipped with much more efficient computer hardware that will allowoptimize their energy efficiency, and thus reduce electricity consumption. Otherwise, two researchers warn of a significant increase in emissions of pollutants through self-driving cars…

Source: IEEE Micro