About the Guest

Nico Larco, AIA is a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Oregon where he is the Director of the Urbanism Next Center and Co-Director of the Sustainable Cities Institute. Urbanism Next is focused on how technological advances such as new mobility, autonomous vehicles, e-commerce and the sharing economy are changing city form and development. Prof. Larco assists cities and projects with future-proofing, has run workshops and charrettes nationally and internationally on this topic, and is currently coordinating work in this area with various municipal and state agencies across North America and in Europe.

Prof. Larco also researches sustainable urban design, has developed the Sustainable Urban Design Framework and assists projects in how best to apply these principles and approaches. His work has been covered by Wired, the New York Times, Forbes, the Financial Times of London, and Newsweek. Prof. Larco is a Principal at Larco/Knudson, an urban design consulting firm, and a Strategic Advisor at TNO, a Dutch thinktank.

Urbanism Next: https://www.urbanismnext.org/

Nico’s Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/nico_larco_how_will_autonomous_vehicles_transform_our_cities

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicolarco

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nico-larco-6702a213/

About the Episode

Today’s discussion will feature autonomous vehicles, and specifically their potential impact on cities and those of us who live in them. My guest Professor Nico Larco comes on to explain both the positive and negative implications for cities in adopting autonomous vehicles, how the pandemic may have changed things with regard to this technology, and how individuals will be affected by this powerful technology.