Autonomous vehicles were supposed to liberate us from traffic hell. Research says otherwise
Self-driving cars promise a future where you sit back, relax, and slide past gridlock while the car handles everything. A new study from the University of Texas at Arlington has bad news for that myth. According to research, the widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles could actually make traffic worse.
Professor Stephen Mattingly and Farah Naz conducted a meta-analysis of how self-driving cars could affect vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Their results revealed a 5.95% increase in vehicle miles traveled. Non-participating private vehicles made this figure much higher, at around 7%.
“The rise of AVs may make travel easier, but it may lead to more pick-up and drop-off activities, empty car trips and new costs.”
The logic is simple. When your car can’t drop you off and drive itself home, or drive around looking for a ride, the roads get very busy. As Dr. Mattingly put it, “Where are passengers going to send their car when they don’t need it?” Will it be sent to the parking lot, sent to try to find other passengers, or sent home?”
Are robot taxis already causing chaos on the roads?
To put it in a nutshell, research shows that robotaxis is already causing an increase in vehicle miles traveled, and if its adoption becomes universal, it will put a lot of pressure on existing infrastructure. But that is in the future; if current news reports are anything to go by, robotaxis are already wreaking havoc on the roads.
For example, Waymo launched in Nashville on April 7, 2026, and within five days, people were posting dangerous videos of its roboaxis freezing at intersections and driving through restricted areas. In December 2025, a power outage in San Francisco left dozens of Waymo vehicles stranded at intersections across the city.
It’s not just a US-specific problem. Just a few weeks back, dozens of Baidu traffic lights stopped simultaneously on major roads in Wuhan, China, with commuters fleeing through traffic for over an hour.
These are just a few examples. A number of similar incidents have occurred in the past few months, where traffic lights have been stuck for various reasons and created traffic jams.
This happens while robotaxis is in trial mode. Multiply this by a factor of a hundred or a thousand, and it’s easy to imagine how bad traffic could be in the future.
So what happens next?
Dr. Naz summed it up well: “AVs are not inherently good or bad. Their impact will largely depend on how they are used and managed.” Without smart policy before mass adoption, the self-driving dream risks giving us shiny, expensive traffic.
If we are to pay that price, autonomous vehicles must clearly demonstrate that they are safer and more reliable than human drivers, which they have so far failed to do.
