Testing Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything Communication Performance and Feasibility in Automated Vehicles *

Many studies have demonstrated the eco-driving capabilities of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) to significantly enhance mobility systems. The majority of these studies have been conducted using simulations, which fail to capture the effects of practical uncertainties encountered in vehicle-to-anything (V2X) communications. In this paper, we investigated the performance of current cellular V2X (C-V2X) communications through systematic testing and provided a quantitative analysis of key performance indices (e.g., inter-packet gap and packet error rate) across various test scenarios. As one use case to demonstrate the benefits of C-V2X communication on the road, we tested the feasibility of eco-driving for a SAE level 3 (L3) automated vehicle (AV) communicating with a connected urban corridor capable of transmitting traffic light information (i.e., signal phase and timing). To achieve this, we implemented the eco-speed planning algorithm at a high-level in the AV control software system and ensured its interactions with other existing low-level control algorithms, as well as the C-V2X onboard unit. Finally, we experimentally demonstrated eco-driving of the L3 CAV on a scaled-down corridor with two signal-controlled intersections, revealing the AV’s ability to maintain smoother trajectories and avoid unnecessary stops compared to human-driven vehicles.