Autonomous vehicles are expected to play a key role in the future of urban transportation systems, as they offer potential for additional safety, increased productivity, greater accessibility, better road efﬁciency, and positive impact on the environment. Research in autonomous systems has seen dramatic advances in recent years, due to the increases in available computing power and reduced cost in sensing and computing technologies, resulting in maturing technological readiness level of fully autonomous vehicles. The objective of this paper is to provide a general overview of the recent developments in the realm of autonomous vehicle software systems. Fundamental components of autonomous vehicle software are reviewed, and recent developments in each area are discussed.

Perception, Planning, Control, and Coordination for Autonomous Vehicles

Review of motor vehicle particulate emissions sampling and measurement: From smoke and filter mass to particle number

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01441647.2018.1523253

Impacts of automated vehicles on travel behaviour and land use: an international review of modelling studies

The main aim of this study was to use an adapted version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to investigate the factors that influence users’ acceptance of automated road transport systems (ARTS). A questionnaire survey was administered to 315 users of a CityMobil2 ARTS demonstration in the city of Trikala, Greece. Results provide evidence of the usefulness of the UTAUT framework for increasing our understanding of how public acceptance of these automated vehicles might be maximised. Hedonic Motivation, or users’ enjoyment of the system, had a strong impact on Behavioural Intentions to use ARTS in the future, with Performance Expectancy, Social Influence and Facilitating Conditions also having significant effects. The anticipated effect of Effort Expectancy did not emerge from this study, suggesting that the level of effort required is unlikely to be a critical factor in consumers’ decisions about using ARTS. Based on these results, a number of modifications to UTAUT are suggested for future applications in the context of automated transport. It is recommended that designers and developers should consider the above issues when implementing more permanent versions of automated public transport.

/pdf/what-influences-the-decision-to-use-automated-public-4au8abwzjq.pdf

What influences the decision to use automated public transport? Using UTAUT to understand public acceptance of automated road transport systems

This research proposed an eco-driving system for an isolated signalized intersection under partially Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) environment. This system prioritizes mobility before improving fuel efficiency and optimizes the entire traffic flow by optimizing speed profiles of the connected and automated vehicles. The optimal control problem was solved using Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle. Simulation-based before and after evaluation of the proposed design was conducted. Fuel consumption benefits range from 2.02% to 58.01%. The CO2 emissions benefits range from 1.97% to 33.26%. Throughput benefits are up to 10.80%. The variations are caused by the market penetration rate of connected and automated vehicles and v/c ratio. No adverse effect is observed. Detailed investigation reveals that benefits are significant as long as there is CAV and they grow with CAV’s market penetration rate (MPR) until they level off at about 40% MPR. This indicates that the proposed eco-driving system can be implemented with a low market penetration rate of connected and automated vehicles and could be implemented in a near future. The investigation also reveals that the proposed eco-driving system is able to smooth out the shock wave caused by signal controls and is robust over the impedance from conventional vehicles and randomness of traffic. The proposed system is fast in computation and has great potential for real-time implementation.

Eco approaching at an isolated signalized intersection under partially connected and automated vehicles environment

The project CityMobil2 has carried out a forward-looking exercise to investigate alternative cybermobility scenarios, including both niche and large-market innovations, and their impacts on European cities and their transport systems. The paper describes the current status of and main trends in automated vehicles, a preliminary vision of the future city with mobility supported mainly by automated vehicles, and freight distribution. The expected positive impacts derive from the development of car sharing, the reduction of space required for parking vehicles, the possibilities for older people or those with disabilities to use cars, the enhancement of safety, and the improvement of efficiency of the transport system.

Automated Vehicles and the Rethinking of Mobility and Cities

The main benefits of road automation will be obtained when cars will drive themselves with or without passengers on-board and on any kind of roads, especially in urban areas. This will allow the creation of new transport services—forms of shared mobility, which will enable seamless mobility from door to door without the need of owning a vehicle. To enable this vision, vehicles will not just need to become “autonomous” when automated; they will need to become part of an Automated Road Transport System (ARTS). The CityMobil2 EC project mission is progressing toward this vision defining and demonstrating the legal and technical frameworks necessary to enable ARTS on the roads. After a thorough revision of the literature which allows us to state that automation will perform its best when it will be full-automation and vehicles will be allowed to circulate in urban environments, the paper identifies where these transport systems perform their best, with medium size vehicle as on-demand transport services feeding conventional mass transits in the suburbs of large cities, on radial corridors as complementary mass transits with large busses and platoons of them and as main public transport for small cities with personal vehicles; then defines the infrastructural requirements to insert safely automated vehicles and transport systems in urban areas. Finally it defines the vehicle technical requirements to do so.

CityMobil2: Challenges and Opportunities of Fully Automated Mobility

Rail is today a minimally used modality in urban freight distribution. To reap the benefits of this more sustainable transport mode a few experiences in Europe have attempted to introduce innovative freight distribution schemes where rail is used. One of such schemes uses rail for the urban penetration leg. After having been consolidated in a centre located outside the urban area, goods are transported by shuttle trains to a centre located inside the central area (the multi-modal urban distribution centre – MUDC) and there are transferred to low-pollution road vehicles to reach their final destination. Other schemes use tramways. The paper provides a review of rail-based schemes which have been introduced in European cities. An in-depth assessment is provided of the scheme based on the use of a MUDC. The case study relates to the distribution of fish food in Rome. The environmental and energy benefits obtainable from the shift from the current road-only scheme to the MUDC scheme are estimated in physical and monetary units. An estimate is provided of the maximum public contribution that would still make the scheme beneficial for society as a whole, obtained as the difference between the social costs of the road-only scheme and those of the MUDC scheme. Also, an assessment is provided of the profitability of the scheme from the operators‟ viewpoint.

/pdf/using-rail-to-make-urban-freight-distribution-more-4i8o33xy1y.pdf

Using rail to make urban freight distribution more sustainable

A Model for Transit Design with Choice of Electric Charging System

Collective automated road transport systems (ARTS) are the subject of current research in Europe. The paper reports on the results of the investigations about users’ attitudes towards ARTS and conventional buses that have been carried out in twelve cities where the implementation of an ARTS service is being planned within the Citymobil2 project. A common stated preference questionnaire has been used. The econometric analysis has been based on the estimation of a logit model which has considered the choice for two alternatives: ARTS and minibus. The observed attributes are: waiting time, riding time and fare. Of particular interest, is the estimation of the alternative specific constant (ASC) of the ARTS, because this represents the mean of all the unobserved attributes of the automated system that affect the choice. With a common specification of the systematic utilities of ARTS and minibus, the observed attributes being the same, a positive value of the ASC is indicative of a relatively higher preference for the ARTS. The results show a relatively higher preference for ARTS across the cities where the ARTS is implemented inside a major facility. In other application contexts, commonalities in attitudes across cities are not found. The impacts on attitudes of the socio-economic attributes of the users are heterogeneous across cities.

https://flore.unifi.it/bitstream/2158/1015009/1/Users%20preference%202014%20TR%20Procedia.pdf

Adriano Alessandrini

Papers

Automated Vehicles and the Rethinking of Mobility and Cities

CityMobil2: Challenges and Opportunities of Fully Automated Mobility

Using rail to make urban freight distribution more sustainable

A Model for Transit Design with Choice of Electric Charging System

Users’ Preferences towards Automated Road Public Transport: Results from European Surveys