ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some immediate questions around the key challenges faced in accommodating connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) in the built environment as they become an increasing reality. The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted some rethinking of the role that CAVs might play in future. This is partly driven by questions around the desire or need for personal mobility to help ensure social distancing. In terms of the role of automation for passenger vehicles, much depends on the type of ownership model that emerges. The extent to which the ability of CAV users to undertake other activities will drive demand for their use may in part reflect the maturity and accessibility of existing and potential public transport infrastructure. Although the future of CAVs' relationship with the built environment is uncertain and contingent, on balance the fundamental role of the automobile in shaping cities in the past century predisposes them to a certain path dependence.
