Will driverless cars make ride-hailing cheaper in Singapore?

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have arrived in Singapore.

And, even when driverless cars become widespread, consumers may not see the dramatic fare reductions they expect.

AVs could help address such shortages because they are well suited to the matching function that ride-hailing platforms already perform.

But comparisons between AVs and human drivers need to account for where, when and under what conditions each operates.

To misquote Robert Solow, a Nobel laureate in economics: “You can see the age of autonomous vehicles everywhere, except when you open your ride-hailing app.”