With the advent of more and more cars with smart features, it might be cheaper to simply have "virtual bollards" which are programmed into the cars computer, and the car will never drive over them.
Virtual bollards take up no space, are free to install, require no maintenance or repairs, etc. They also don't destroy any car that hits them.
Virtual bollards can also be passed by ambulances and emergency vehicles easily when needed, unlike real bollards which often slow emergency response.
That’s a nice idea but it would require a lot of elements to work in perfect synchrony to be really safe and reliable. In the foreseeable future, probably easier just to put physical bollards in.
Your comment reminds me of a funny aside in Arthur C Clarke’s The Fountains of Paradise (wonderful novel, about the construction of a space elevator). A famous architect, designing the world’s longest and highest bridge, fights to avoid putting guard rails along the sides. His justification is a) cars are all computer-controlled and totally reliable in the book’s setting, so rails are unnecessary; some suspect it’s actually b) the bridge will look nicer without guard rails; or even darker, c) if a car does somehow go off-course, he’d prefer it doesn’t damage the bridge before plummeting half a mile into the sea.
It doesn't need to be 100% reliable. It just needs to be better than current bollards - which are perhaps only ~10% effective since many accidents happen where there is no bollard to prevent a bystander being killed.
We couldn't even get Americans to stick with speedometers that didn't go above 85 MPH (1979-1981). Good luck limiting peoples speeds automatically, or ability to drive in certain areas!
Virtual bollards take up no space, are free to install, require no maintenance or repairs, etc. They also don't destroy any car that hits them.
Virtual bollards can also be passed by ambulances and emergency vehicles easily when needed, unlike real bollards which often slow emergency response.