Fraedrich, Heinrichs, Bahamonde-Birke and Cyganski’s article examines how autonomous vehicles may affect urban planning, the built environment and municipal transport policy. The authors argue that debates on autonomous driving have focused too narrowly on vehicle technology, traffic efficiency, safety and emissions, while giving insufficient attention to how AVs may reshape land use, street design, parking, public space, pedestrian and cycling conditions, and long-term settlement patterns. Using a literature review, an online survey and interviews with German urban transport planners, the article shows that municipal actors are generally cautious about AVs, especially when they appear as private autonomous vehicles. Planners fear that private automation could increase car use, congestion, suburbanisation, empty vehicle circulation and environmental pressures, thereby undermining existing goals such as strengthening walking, cycling and public transport. By contrast, shared autonomous vehicles are viewed more positively when imagined as flexible complements to public transport, especially in areas with lower demand. The article’s key contribution is its insistence that AVs should not be treated as a single technological future; different use cases—autonomous parking, shared autonomous vehicles, private autonomous vehicles and autonomous delivery vehicles—produce different planning challenges. The authors also identify a mismatch between municipal priorities, which emphasise liveability, sustainability and public transport, and federal or industrial priorities, which often focus on technological competitiveness and efficiency. Ultimately, the article concludes that autonomous driving must be debated within a broader urban development framework, not merely as a transport innovation, and that cities should proactively shape AV deployment to support sustainable, inclusive and liveable urban futures.
