Energy Impacts of Traffic-Smoothing Cruise Controllers on Mixed Traffic

Stop-and-go traffic waves, common in real-world traffic due to human drivers' collective behavior, result in increased fuel consumption. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) present an opportunity to mitigate these waves and enhance energy efficiency, contributing to a sustainable transportation future. Our recent study has introduced explicit additive controllers for AVs, distinguishing itself from the literature by not requiring vehicle connectivity and directly addressing nonlinear traffic without system linearization. However, the impact of these AV driving strategies on mixed traffic, particularly on vehicle energy consumption, remains unexplored. In this article, we conduct a comprehensive simulation study assessing the energy impacts of traffic-smoothing cruise controllers on mixed traffic involving AVs and human-driven vehicles (HVs). Three scenarios, covering theoretical and realistic calibrated parameters, as well as real-world vehicle trajectory, are considered. Simulations involve a platoon of 10 vehicles in stop-and-go traffic waves, with varying AV market penetration rates (MPRs). Results demonstrate that these controllers can reduce vehicle fuel consumption and speed variation across all the simulated scenarios, with the effect increasing as the MPR of AVs rises and more realistic cases showing greater promise.