The automotive industry appears close to substantial change engendered by “self-driving” technologies. This technology offers the possibility of significant benefits to social welfare—saving lives; reducing crashes, congestion, fuel consumption, and pollution; increasing mobility for the disabled; and ultimately improving land use. This report is intended as a guide for state and federal policymakers on the many issues that this technology raises.
This book takes a look at fully automated, autonomous vehicles and discusses many open questions: How can autonomous vehicles be integrated into the current transportation system with diverse users and human drivers? Where do automated vehicles fall under current legal frameworks? What risks are associated with automation and how will society respond to these risks? How will the marketplace react to automated vehicles and what changes may be necessary for companies? Experts from Germany and the United States define key societal, engineering, and mobility issues related to the automation of vehicles. They discuss the decisions programmers of automated vehicles must make to enable vehicles to perceive their environment, interact with other road users, and choose actions that may have ethical consequences. The authors further identify expectations and concerns that will form the basis for individual and societal acceptance of autonomous driving. While the safety benefits of such vehicles are tremendous, the authors demonstrate that these benefits will only be achieved if vehicles have an appropriate safety concept at the heart of their design. Realizing the potential of automated vehicles to reorganize traffic and transform mobility of people and goods requires similar care in the design of vehicles and networks. By covering all of these topics, the book aims to provide a current, comprehensive, and scientifically sound treatment of the emerging field of “autonomous driving".
This book features papers focusing on the implementation of new and future technologies, which were presented at the International Conference on New Technologies, Development and Application, held at the Academy of Science and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo on 27th–29th June 2019. It covers a wide range of future technologies and technical disciplines, including complex systems such as Industry 4.0; robotics; mechatronics systems; automation; manufacturing; cyber-physical and autonomous systems; sensors; networks; control, energy, automotive and biological systems; vehicular networking and connected vehicles; effectiveness and logistics systems, smart grids, as well as nonlinear, power, social and economic systems. We are currently experiencing the Fourth Industrial Revolution “Industry 4.0”, and its implementation will improve many aspects of human life in all segments, and lead to changes in business paradigms and production models. Further, new business methods are emerging, transforming production systems, transport, delivery, and consumption, which need to be monitored and implemented by every company involved in the global market.
The Autonomous Vehicle (AV) has been strongly heralded as the most exciting innovation in automobility for decades. Autonomous Vehicles are no longer an innovation of the future (seen only in science fiction) but are now being road-tested for use. And yet while the technical and economic success and possibilities of the AV have been widely debated, there has been a notable lack of discussion around the social, behavioural, and environmental implications. This book is the first to address these issues and to deeply consider the environmental and social sustainability outlook for the AV and how it will impact on communities. Environmental and social sustainability are goals unlike those of technical development (a new tool) and economic development (a new investment). The goal of sustainability is development of societies that live well and equitably within their ecological limits. Is it reasonable and desirable that only technical and economic success comprise the swelling AV parade, or should we be looking at the wider impacts on personal well-being, wider society, and the environment? The uptake for AVs looks to be lengthy, disjointed, and episodic, in large measure because it faces a range of known unknown risks. This book assesses the environmental and social sustainability potential for AVs based on their prospective energy use and their impacts on climate change, urban landscapes, public health, mobility inequalities, and individual and social well-being. It examines public attitudes about AV use and its risk of fostering a rebound effect that compromises potential sustainability gains. The book concludes with a discussion of critical issues involved in sustainable AV diffusion.
Prediction of traffic (like weather forecast), its planning and control are counted among the great scientific and technological challenges. Similarly, flow of granular material like tablets or powders is of immense importance for industrial processing of solids. Both fields have intriguing conceptual analogies.From 9-11 October, 1995, the German Supercomputing Center HLRZ (Höchstleitungsrechenzentrum) at the research center Jülich (KFA) organized an international workshop 'Traffic and Granular Flow'. The purpose of this workshop was to promote the interaction between these two scientific fields, to which supercomputing is making essential contributions, and to stimulate the transfer between basic and applied research.
This open access book presents research and evaluation results of the Austrian flagship project “Connecting Austria,” illustrating the wide range of research needs and questions that arise when semi-automated truck platooning is deployed in Austria. The work presented is introduced in the context of work in similar research areas around the world. This interdisciplinary research effort considers aspects of engineering, road-vehicle and infrastructure technologies, traffic management and optimization, traffic safety, and psychology, as well as potential economic effects. The book’s broad perspective means that readers interested in current and state-of-the-art methods and techniques for the realization of semi-automated driving and with either an engineering background or with a less technical background gain a comprehensive picture of this important subject. The contributors address many questions such as: Which maneuvers does a platoon typically have to carry out, and how? How can platoons be integrated seamlessly in the traffic flow without becoming an obstacle to individual road users? What trade-offs between system information (sensors, communication effort, etc.) and efficiency are realistic? How can intersections be passed by a platoon in an intelligent fashion? Consideration of diverse disciplines and highlighting their meaning for semi-automated truck platooning, together with the highlighting of necessary research and evaluation patterns to address such a broad task scientifically, makes Energy-Efficient and Semi-automated Truck Platooning a unique contribution with methods that can be extended and adapted beyond the geographical area of the research reported.
The main topic of this book is the recent development of on-board advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), which we can already tell will eventually contribute to the autonomous and connected vehicles of tomorrow. With the development of automated mobility, it becomes necessary to design a series of modules which, from the data produced by on-board or remote information sources, will enable the construction of a completely automated driving system. These modules are perception, decision and action. State-of-the-art AI techniques and their potential applications in the field of autonomous vehicles are described. Perception systems, focusing on visual sensors, the decision module and the prototyping, testing and evaluation of ADAS systems are all presented for effective implementation on autonomous and connected vehicles. This book also addresses cooperative systems, such as pedestrian detection, as well as the legal issues in the use of autonomous vehicles in open environments.
The ITF Transport Outlook provides an overview of recent trends and near-term prospects for the transport sector at a global level, as well as long-term prospects for transport demand to 2050, for freight (maritime, air and surface), passenger transport (car, rail and air) and CO2 emissions.
This is the fifth volume of a sub series on Road Vehicle Automation published within the Lecture Notes in Mobility. Like in previous editions, scholars, engineers and analysts from all around the world have contributed chapters covering human factors, ethical, legal, energy and technology aspects related to automated vehicles, as well as transportation infrastructure and public planning. The book is based on the Automated Vehicles Symposium which was hosted by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in San Francisco, California (USA) in July 2017.
