Assessing the emission impacts of autonomous vehicles on metropolitan freeways

Abstract

While recent studies demonstrate the societal and economic benefits of driverless vehicles, little is known about the emission impacts of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in the context of mixed traffic. This paper explores the environmental impacts of AVs along an urban freeway corridor in a metropolitan area using Vehicle Specific Power (VSP) and EMEP/EEA emission methodologies paired with VISSIM traffic model. Three different AV penetration rates were implemented for through traffic along a freeway corridor in the city of Porto (Portugal) by considering long-term market predictions (10%, 20% and 30%). Afterwards, these scenarios were compared to current situation in terms of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon emissions, and travel time and stop-and-go situations. The emissions and traffic performance of each scenario were evaluated on three levels: a) overall study domain; b) corridor; c) impact of AVs on conventional vehicles (CVs). AVs yielded small savings in emissions in the overall study domain for automation levels below 30% (differences in traffic performance and emissions were not statistically significant). Corridor-level analysis showed decreases of 5% in emissions can be expected with AVs technology, but it penalizes travel time up to 13% for both AV and CV, when compared to the existing situation.