---
title: "Department of Energy Says That Driverless Taxis Could Already Be Cheaper Than Cabs"
description: "Fleets of autonomous taxis should vastly reduce the amount of overall emissions released in cities, and the economics of a driverless taxi already make sense today."
date: "2015-07-07"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Alex Klokus"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/alex-klokus"
url: "https://futurism.com/department-of-energy-says-that-driverless-taxis-could-already-be-cheaper-than-cabs"
categories:
  - "Advanced Transport"
  - "Energy"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Self-Driving Vehicles"
tags:
  - "transport"
---

# Department of Energy Says That Driverless Taxis Could Already Be Cheaper Than Cabs

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- Today's taxis are driven between three and six times as far annually as a standard passenger car, meaning that most of the cost of operating a taxi is in paying the driver, buying gas, and doing maintenance on the car—the initial cost of the car itself is much less important.
- Staggeringly, electric driverless taxis could push greenhouse gas emissions down by 94 percent on a per-vehicle basis (which was the initial purpose of the study), with emissions being completely eliminated if sustainable energy such as solar power is used to recharge them.
- The estimated 233,000 taxi drivers out there will need to find new jobs, and taxi companies notoriously have a pretty strong local lobbying presence. Already, cabbie versus Uber tensions have flared up in cities all around the world.

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexklokus>)