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One impact of your suggestion will be increased congestion as these automated cars use the road twice - once to drop and once to return to parking.

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That would be worst-case - if the car went all the way back to where it came from. We could easily be more efficient - garages at a moderate distance with much high density (no need of human access) and routing could be optimized to avoid congestion both on the road and parked.

But the big win would be with car sharing.

Between 5 and 10% of all traffic is currently people looking for parking in many cities. If the driverless cars function like taxis and pick up another fare, instead of parking immediately, they stand to reduce congestion overall.

SFMTA, our terribly run public transit conglomerate, says "Circling for parking accounts for approximately 30 percent of San Francisco’s congestion". While I am skeptical of the source (this was to justify an expensive new parking meter system and higher rates) it does seem possible. I'd love to see scientific research.

http://sfpark.org/2011/04/04/sfmta-announces-improved-sfpark...

From pjlegato's comment below.

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