Energy impact of different penetrations of connected and automated vehicles: a preliminary assessment

Previous research reported in the literature has shown the benefits of traffic coordination to alleviate congestion, and reduce fuel consumption and emissions. However, there are still many remaining challenges that need to be addressed before a massive deployment of fully automated vehicles. This paper aims to investigate the energy impacts of different penetration rates of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) and their interaction with human-driven vehicles. We develop a simulation framework for mixed traffic (CAVs interacting with human-driven vehicles) in merging roadways and analyze the energy impact of different penetration rates of CAVs on the energy consumption. The Gipps car following model is used along with heuristic controls to represent the driver decisions in a merging roadways traffic scenario. Using different penetration rates of CAVs, the simulation results indicated that for low penetration rates, the fuel consumption benefits are significant but the total travel time increases. The benefits in travel time are noticeable for higher penetration rates of CAVs.