Analyzing Energy and Mobility Impacts of Privately-owned Autonomous Vehicles

The majority of research analyzing autonomous vehicle impacts focuses on an automated, connected, electrified, and shared future. Yet, conventional private vehicle ownership and its convenience can shape a future in which autonomous vehicles (AVs) are privately-owned. Such a future would bring in a wide range of impacts on traffic flow, overall transportation system performance, energy consumption characteristics, and travel demand. In this study, we present an optimization model framework coupled with a transportation simulation tool and assess energy and mobility implications under a variety of partial-and full-automation scenarios with different costs and states of the technology assumptions. We demonstrate that private AVs significantly influence the regional traffic congestion of a test area (Bloomington, Illinois) with a 74% increase in vehicle hours traveled (VHT) and 66% and 87% increase in fuel consumption under low and high technology adoption scenarios, respectively. However, we find that introducing $0.10 taxation per mile unoccupied travel could mitigate the influence by reducing VHT and fuel consumption 13% and 15-20%, respectively.