Dr. Xinyi Wu, Professor Jason Cao, and Frank Douma published the paper, “The Impacts of Vehicle Automation on Transport-Disadvantaged People,” in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives.

Recognizing that the current transportation system has created racial, gender, age, and financial disparities, the authors began the paper by summarizing prominent travel patterns of transportation-disadvantaged populations. They then discussed the equity implications of autonomous vehicles to these underserved people.

They found that autonomous vehicles will bring more benefits than harm to some people, but may have mixed effects on others. Based on the findings, they elaborated on future policymaking to help maximize the benefits and mitigate the challenges brought by autonomous vehicles.