Why It Matters

Imagine a world where bikes can ride by themselves. Pretty cool, right? But can they also make our cities cleaner and healthier? That's what we're looking at.

What We Did

To understand how self-driving bikes can help, we did something called a "Life Cycle Assessment" or LCA. It's like taking a big picture of how things work, from making the bikes to using them and even recycling them at the end of their life. LCAs help us see how different products affect the environment.

Moreover, we also had already explored how self-driving bikes would compare to current systems, like Bluebikes, in this study. With all of this information, we were ready to analyze if self-driving bikes could be more sustainable than current bike-sharing systems.

What We Found

Here's something exciting we discovered: self-driving bikes can be good for the environment! Our study found that they produce less pollution —about 33% to 58% less than current bike sharing systems. That's a big difference!

We also learned that how we design these self-driving bikes is super important to minimize emissions. For example, if we make them last for longer, they'll be even better for the environment.

Lastly, we have seen that it is very important that these bikes help replace trips that people usually make by car. Imagine if the bus or train stop is far from your house. You could ride one of these bikes to get there! That way, more people can use public transportation, even if they don't live close to a stop. It's like giving more people a chance to use buses and trains to get around, which is great for keeping our air clean and our cities less crowded with cars!