Autonomous features can help make electric vehicles more affordable, saving up to $1,800 in battery costs (or, alternatively, extending driving range by 24 miles), according to Lux Research. The company cited academic studies that indicate that autonomous features can boost efficiency by as much as 10% compared with human drivers. (See related article.)
One particular autonomous feature the firm mentioned is self-parking. Now, I could expect autonomous vehicles to be more efficient than human drivers by, for example, avoiding unnecessary acceleration. But parking? A fully autonomous vehicle could be incredibly convenient—it could drop you off at your front door and then go look for a parking place. But how does self-parking save energy?
Maryanna Saenko, a research analyst at the company, explained it to me in an email. “I should note that when we refer to self-parking, we really mean valet-style parking where the entire parking process is automated,” she said. She provided several notes on how self-parking will help efficiency:
- “First and foremost, self-parking cars will enable a greater proliferation of wireless charging, which requires precise parking alignment between the vehicle and the charging pad. Misalignment between the pad and car hurts efficiency—charging speed drops dramatically.
- “For fleet vehicles in car-sharing programs such as Zipcar or DriveNow, self-parking will enable speedy return back to designated parking/charging stations, limiting the time drivers spend driving around foreign garages and parking lots looking for the required parking spots.
- “Finally, driving around looking for parking tends to be one of the most inefficient driving tasks that humans perform, with rapid acceleration and breaking, and multiple attempts to fit into parking spots. Automated valet parking will drastically improve this portion of the driving process, by smoothing the jerky driving process of looking for and parking in a spot.”
She also noted that other autonomous functions will boost efficiency as well, and they are covered in Lux Research’s report on the topic, titled “Electric Car, Drive Thyself: How Autonomous Systems and Plug-in Vehicles Will Converge.” (The report is part of the Lux Research Autonomous Vehicles 2.0 Intelligence and the Energy Storage Intelligence services.) The firm’s press release on the report emphasized self-parking EVs because they are set to hit the market soon. (See forecast data in the related article.)
