Self-driving cars are coming. Joseph Coughlin and Luke Yoquinto looked at what this will mean for our commutes:

• On average, despite the type of transit available, people live about a 30 minute commute from work.
• This relationship is so strong it may well have been true for ancient Greeks and cavemen.
• But the average hides a lot of variation. For a lot of people 90 minute commutes are fairly normal – though they’re offset by all the people with five minute commutes.
• Since autonomous cars will be able to drive safely at incredibly fast speeds, those willing to commute 90 minutes will be able to live much further away.
• Somebody could live, for example, in upstate Vermont and work in New York.
• Such commutes will be even more palatable since autonomous cars will likely have a lot of space for eating, reading, and sleeping.
• This will also likely herald the end of the short haul flight industry. Why fly when you can get there much cheaper and without the hassle of security?

Read more about what the future of autonomous cars means for us, the environmental concerns, and the infrastructure we’ll need to bring this about here.

Source: Slate