Autonomous Vehicles to Save Canada $54 Billion, Many Lives: Report

Burney Simpson

Canada could see annual savings of nearly $54.2 billion ($65.5 billion Canadian) and an 80 percent reduction in road fatalities by shifting to autonomous vehicles, according to a new report from a consortium of Canadian organizations.

“Automated Vehicles: The Coming of the Next Disruptive Technology” estimates that driverless technology could mean annual savings of about $3,000 per household based on 2012 prices. Autonomous driving technology would also make the Canadian roads safer, cutting road fatalities from about 2,000 annually to 400.

The report was researched and written by the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence (CAVCOE), The Conference Board of Canada’s Centre for Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Van Horne Institute.

The report breaks down the savings from AVs as $31 billion in collision avoidance; $16.6 billion in time savings; $2.1 billion in fuel costs; and $4.1 billion in congestion avoidance.

Canada’s GDP was an estimated $1.8 trillion for its population of 35.7 million last year.

Canada and America are each other’s largest trading partner, with Canada importing $282 billion in goods from the U.S. in 2008. About 80 percent of Canadians live less than 100 miles from the U.S. border.

The report predicts that the adoption of automated vehicles will be led by Baby Boomers seeking to retain their independence as they age, and by Millennials who will find it easier to ‘share’ an automated car rather than own and drive one. The move to a ‘connected’ online society, combined with a more efficient use of vehicles will “likely … result in a net increase in (Canada’s) GDP,” the report concludes.

Autonomous Vehicles (AV) will become part of the new “sharing economy” as exemplified today by successes like Airbnb and Uber.

The public acceptance of this technology means “more efficient ways to utilize existing resources to the benefit of wider society. Although greatly resisted by incumbent business sectors such as hotels and taxi companies, the trend is one of continual challenge and change toward these new businesses and the resultant money flows will be significant.”

There will be winners and losers among industries and workers.

There will be less work for professional drivers, auto repair workers, traffic police, and medical staff that treat accident victims. But there will be opportunities for auto and technology industries that design and manufacture sensors and software for AVs.

Meanwhile, if AVs are powered by electricity rather than gas, the overall consumption of oil could drop in Canada but there will be an increase in “the use of natural gas, electricity generation, and distribution sectors because of the widespread use of natural gas for electricity generation,” the AV report finds.

The Conference Board of Canada is an independent, not-for-profit, applied research organization that is funded through the fees it charges to the public and private sector.