In the last 20 years, many new companies such as Tesla have been developing fully autonomous, electric vehicles. Widespread use of such vehicles in Australia could cause monumental positive changes in our society in areas such as safety and life expectancy, environmental impact and economic growth.                                                                      Traffic accidents have a terrible death toll. In 2019, 1,195 Australians died in car accidents and many thousands more were seriously injured. Many injuries sustained from car accidents stay with people for life. Studies show that self-driving cars are up to 94% safer than human ones, due to human error, drink driving and negligence.                                                    
Another benefit of autonomous vehicles is that people would need to pay much less attention into driving and become more productive. Powering vehicles with electricity is far cheaper than fuel, and this would make exports and imports using ships and planes, business, and travel far cheaper and more efficient, potentially a period of significant economic growth and prosperity for Australia.                                                                                                  Vehicles that run on electricity do not produce Carbon Dioxide, Methane and nitrous oxide like fossil fuel-powered vehicles do, and thus these revolutionary vehicles have the potential to massively reduce our impact on the environment. These gasses contribute to global climate change as well as water and air pollution. Extraction operations required to supply fuel used by conventional vehicles contribute to the destruction of Australia’s beautiful natural landscapes, as well as the habitats of countless our native species driving them to endangerment and extinction.
 
Although many improved models of electric, autonomous vehicles are available from companies such as Tesla, electric vehicles still make up only around 0.6% of the Australian fleet. The main reason that only an extremely small portion of the population uses these vehicles is their high price. This means that these vehicles are affordable only to a small group of people. It is in the Government’s interest to make these vehicles more accessible as they could bring about these big positive changes.                                                                         

Investing the Australian electric and autonomous car industry should be part of the plan, in addition to subsidising electric and autonomous cars. Investing in the construction of factories to produce these vehicles would also speed up their widespread adoption. A subsidy that would reduce the price of these vehicles by as little as 10% could make a huge change by allowing a much larger part of the population to purchase them. Subsidising electric car charging stations would make them more affordable and would encourage people to use them. The Government could also companies build charging stations through funding, so that there would be more stations around and could also subsidise the electricity that car users will pay for on these stations.

Addressing this issue could lead to an unprecedented benefit to the country and all its inhabitants.