Help or hindrance? The travel, energy and carbon impacts of highly automated vehicles

Experts predict that new automobiles will be capable of driving themselves under limited conditions within 5-10 years, and under most conditions within 10-20 years. Automation may affect road vehicle energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a host of ways, positive and negative, by causing changes in travel demand, vehicle design, vehicle operating profiles, and choices of fuels. In this paper, we identify specific mechanisms through which automation may affect travel and energy demand and resulting GHG emissions and bring them together using a coherent energy decomposition framework. We review the literature for estimates of the energy impacts of each mechanism and, where the literature is…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Transportation
• IC
  Imperial College London
• FH
  Federal Highway Administration