After a year dedicated to exploring the meaning and the environmental, economic, social, legal, and political dimensions of the autonomous vehicle, MACIF's Autonomous Vehicle Community of Interest unveils the results of its initial work.

The Community of Interest launched by MACIF is part of the work carried out within Movin'On, which brings together companies, cities, countries, and citizens worldwide to advance sustainable mobility.

Guided by an open and collaborative approach, the synthesis report produced by the Movin'On community of interest during its first year of existence explores non-technical dimensions of
autonomous mobility that have been ignored until now.

"If tomorrow, the autonomous vehicle makes it possible to restore mobility for those who are deprived of it, to share an asset, to have less of an impact on the environment and to bring life and activity back into city centers, then this will be a real positive step forward for society," Yann Arnaud, MACIF's Director of Members Needs Response and Innovation has said.

Findings and recommendations

Social and territorial inclusion

The work of the Movin'On community of interest shows the need to think about the development of autonomous vehicles based on the needs of people excluded from mobility. Thus, the autonomous vehicle would not compete with but complement the car in rural and peri-urban areas. As a matter of fact, autonomous vehicles could contribute to the emergence of a socially and territorially more inclusive mobility.

Sustainable mobility

The report highlights the high degree of uncertainty that remains about the environmental impact of autonomous vehicles. It is conditional on the role that public authorities will play in regulating the deployment of autonomous vehicles by promoting collective and shared mobility.

Indeed, while 29% of CO2 emissions in 2017 were caused by transports in France, the development of future autonomous electric vehicles is regularly presented as an opportunity for the national low carbon strategy and in the fight against global warming.

Role of the territories

The report stresses the importance of closely involving local authorities - which provide services, regulate mobility, manage roads and guarantee public order - in the experimentation and in the national development strategy for autonomous vehicles. This applies to the deployment of these future mobility services in rural and peri-urban areas.

The community's work explores the blind spot of rural territories in the reflections and experimentations of autonomous vehicles in France: indeed, if more than 120 experimentations have been carried out since 2015, only 6 have been conducted in sparsely populated areas. However, due to the specific mobility needs of these territories and the commitment of elected officials, autonomous mobility could constitute a real progress.

Meaning of the technology

The Autonomous Vehicle Community of Interest gives priority to a reflection on the meaning and on the consequences of the emergence of the autonomous vehicle. This is an original approach, as the players in the sector have until now mainly favored a technological approach to this object. Indeed, out of 100,000 scientific publications on the autonomous vehicle, only 185 deal with its impact on mobility.

To get a better perspective of the report through numbers and infographics, you can download a copy here.

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MACIF's community of interest releases new report at Movin'On