The Emergence of Automated Vehicles and their Potential Implications for Urban Mobility: A Review of the Literature and Synthesis of Use Cases

Abstract

Automated vehicles (AVs), which are expected to enter the market within the near future, represent the current frontiers in mobility and urban planning. AVs are assumed to bring substantial benefits to cities in many aspects. The present study attempts to investigate this broad assumption by conducting a literature review on the possible implications of AVs in cities as well as synthesizing the current state of practice of AV pilots to detect trends in their deployment. In this paper, literature findings on AVs’ implication on vehicle ownership, mobility, land use as well thirteen uses cases were synthesized to capture the big picture of them in cities. The findings showed that, in the AV pilots, the operation of AVs is limited to routes stretching less than 3.5km and an operation speed of less than 18km/h; low speed has been one of the main concerns of the participating passengers to use them for daily trips. The results also revealed that although shared AVs are expected in urban mobility, private ownership will stay competitive since vehicle ownership has been a socio-cultural identity in the history of automobiles. The findings also underlined that the potential influence of AVs on active mobility is still unclear as the AVs have not been introduced on a larger scale. Regarding AVs’ impact on land use, their introduction results in the effective use of space, but they will cause suburbanization in the long term.

Exploring the Landscape of Autonomous Vehicles Research: A Scientometric Analysis in the Context of Urban Transportation Planning

“…[1,2] AVs as a rapidly growing trend in both research and industry worlds, have the high potential to revolutionize the automotive industry, transportation systems, and the way we live our daily lives. The roots of AVs can be traced back to the early 1920s, [3] gaining momentum in the 1980s when researchers successfully developed automated highway systems. [4] Subsequently, after 2004, the remarkable progress of AVs can be attributed to the extensive research on unmanned equipment conducted by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, commonly known as DARPA.…”

How PTV Vissim Has Been Calibrated for the Simulation of Automated Vehicles in Literature?

“…AVs are predicted to hit the market soon and will bring both opportunities and challenges to the road transportation system. According to a recent study by Beza et al [14], the technology has become capable of traversing urban roadways such as roundabouts and pedestrian crossings; however, their operational speed is too low (less than 20 km/h), which is not sufficient for commuters. Furthermore, Zhang and Wang [15] demonstrated that level 4 AV market share in the US cities might reach 34% in 2030 and 75% in 2040.…”