Energetic Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles in Real-World Traffic Conditions From Nine Open-Source Datasets

Potential increases or decreases in energy consumption for various traffic operation modes is a research focus in light-duty autonomous vehicle (AV) studies. However, AVs have unclear energy consumption patterns compared with human-driving vehicles (HV), especially under diverse real-world traffic conditions. Considering nine open-source AV activity datasets from six nations, three nontrivial characteristics of light-duty AVs under real traffic conditions were found. 1) The energy consumption of AVs was similar to that of HVs in the low-speed range and was lower than HVs in the high-speed range. 2) The turning point between low-speed and high-speed was a variable parameter for different data sources. 3) The energy consumption of AVs may be higher than that of HVs under complex traffic conditions in the high-speed range. Based on a vehicle-specific power distribution model, this study developed an AV energy consumption model under real traffic conditions at average speeds of 10 to 100 km/h. Potential energy consumption savings and losses were determined using two parameters: the turning point between low-speed and high-speed and the rate of change in vehicle-specific power standard deviation in the high-speed range. Under real traffic conditions, the results implied that light-duty AVs had the potential to reduce energy consumption by 3.78% to 26.47% under stable conditions but could also increase energy consumption by 3.25% to 48.93% compared with light-duty HVs under unstable conditions.

Automated summary

This study examines the potential energy consumption changes in light-duty autonomous vehicles (AVs) compared with human-driving vehicles (HVs) under different traffic conditions. The research findings reveal that the energy consumption of AVs is similar to HVs at low speeds and lower at high speeds. The turning point between low-speed and high-speed varies among different data sources. Furthermore, AVs may consume more energy than HVs in complex traffic conditions at high speeds.