If self-driving cars are widely adopted, their emissions will rival those generated by all the data centers in the world today. Those centers housing the physical computing infrastructure used for running applications are widely known for their large carbon footprint, currently accounting for about 0.3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Keeping emissions at or below those levels would require hardware efficiency to improve more rapidly than its current pace. More reason to walk, bike or take public transit.
news.mit.edu/2023/autonomous-vehicles-carbon-emissions-0113#:~:text=Caption%3A-,MIT%20researchers%20determined%20that%201%20billion%20autonomous%20vehicles%2C%20each%20driving,as%20data%20centers%20currently%20do.