Book Review: 'Ghost Road' and Visions for Autonomous Transporation

Anthony M. Townsend's Ghost Road: Beyond the Driverless Car "is a relentlessly creative and deeply thought-through analysis of the future of transportation," says Joshua Kim in a review of the book. 

Townsend analyzes autonomous transportation in a wide context, refusing to be limited by the scope of autonomous automobiles. "It is an urbanist take on autonomy that makes Ghost Road such a rewarding and edifying read," writes Kim.

Townsend is an expert on self-driving cars, transportation, and urban design, and he sketches an alternative narrative around our autonomous transportation future. Rather than focusing his analysis solely on self-driving automobiles, Townsend widens the lens to consider all forms of future mobility.

Townsend wrote the book before the COVID-19 outbreak, and Kim wonders how the work would be different if it had been written afterward. "One theme that runs through the book is that of America's deep reliance on automobiles for commuting to work. While telecommuting was growing quickly pre-pandemic, only 3.4 percent of all employees worked entirely remotely," says Kim.