By Johnny MendezBack in April, I sent an email called “Why I’m Bearish on Parking.”
The basic idea was simple. If autonomous taxis become reliable and easy to summon, fewer people may need to own cars. If a car picks you up and leaves afterward, you no longer need to store it at your home or office all day.
This week, that future looked a little closer.
A Tesla Cybercab was spotted traveling on Route 7 and turning into a McLean neighborhood. It was not operating as a public taxi, and there was still a safety operator up front. It appeared to be collecting information about our local roads and traffic.
This does not mean driverless taxis are arriving in Northern Virginia tomorrow. The technology still has to prove itself, Virginia’s laws have to catch up, and people have to trust it.
But this is another domino.
Parking quietly shapes almost every part of local real estate. It affects what can be built, how many units fit on a site, whether an office-to-residential conversion makes sense, what businesses can operate in a property, and more.
If autonomous vehicles become common over the next several years, it will change real estate forever.
A Tesla Cybercab collecting data in Tysons tells me this is no longer just a California or Texas story. The early stages are already here in Northern Virginia.
What happens to all the parking spaces when we don’t need them anymore?