Simulating platooned connected autonomous vehicle in a large scale urban scenario.

This article i s concerned with the performance evaluation of connected, autonomous vehicles (CAVs) i n a realistic l arge-scale microsimulation scenario. I n particular the ques-tion i s: how much could a high diffusion of CAVs possibly change (1) the average travel speeds (2) the trip times of all traffic participants, i ncluding pedestrians, and (3) the en-ergy/fuel consumption? For this purpose, admittedly favourable assumptions are made: a 100% diffusion of platooning-capable CAVs as substitution for private cars as well as a high maximum speed of platooned vehicles i n order to enable platoon formation. The morning rush hour scenario of the metropolitan area of Bologna, Italy has been selected for assessment. This scenario, which has been created and validated i n previous works, represents an activity based demand model with travel plans for i ndividual citizens, i ncluding all relevant transport modes. The microsimulation i s performed by means of the SUMO simulator. The entire demand has been generated with the SUMOPy tool. For the platooning of CAVs, SUMO's SIMPLA module has been used, which controlls the vehicles via the interactive TRACI API. Results show an increased speed and reduced travel time for CAV vehicles, with respect to human driven cars, in particular in the periphery and less in the center with a dense road network. However, the reason for improved speeds and travel times is predominantly the higher maximum speed allowed for vehicles trying to catch up and join a platoon. Furthermore these higher speed would also be resposible for an increase in fuel consumption of approximately 5%. In conclusion, CAVs alone are unlikely to reduce congestion i n an urban area. To make the platooning concept work, additional technology and i nfrastructure i s required i n order to merge platoons effectively at freeways and at traffic l ights. The l atter could be simulated with GLOSA [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]