Impact Assessment of Autonomous Electric Vehicles in Public Transportation System

Abstract

New mobility landscape is expeditiously evolving in order to meet the requirements of the rapid urbanization. The “Autonomous Electric Vehicles (AEVs)” have gained importance in the field of mobility and is driven by numerous technological breakthroughs from automakers to tech companies, industry partnerships, and government agencies. The status and trends of developments in AEV technology creates a wave of transformations in topics like transportation, energy consumption, environment, and society. This work examines the relevant opportunities of AEVs as a means for public transportation in an urban ecosystem and the various impacts associated with the autonomous driving technologies. This holistic assessment consists of the impacts of AEV’s on energy consumption, ride comfort, travel time and infrastructure. In addition, operational mechanisms of autonomous vehicles such as platooning, eco-driving are evaluated and presented within the paper. Finally, this assessment provides a window to judge the consequences of the intervention of AEV in the public transit system.