Once confined to science fiction, robo-taxis and shuttles that can be summoned through a smartphone will become available in some large cities by the end of this year, according to the agenda-setting organisation, more widely known for its annual meeting in Davos.

Researchers built a sophisticated traffic simulation model based on the American city of Boston, which showed the contrasts between current traffic patterns and future scenarios and found that driverless, on-demand car services will increase traffic, leading travel times to increase by 6 per cent in central parts of the city.
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