With regard to the medium and long-term planning and development of the transportation network and spatial development, the role of automated driving is gaining importance. Both national and international studies show that in terms of mobility behavior (demand, choice of vehicle, etc.) and traffic flow (traffic technology, infrastructure capacity, traffic safety, etc.) major changes are expected due to an increasing share of automated vehicles in the traffic system.
Our research for the Swiss Federal Roads Office FEDRO focused on the effects of automated driving on the traffic system. In particular, the coexistence of different vehicle types with different degrees of automation as well as their interaction with other road users was considered. The focus lied on the investigation of safety and functionality of the traffic system. The main challenges were the estimation and prognosis of the degree of penetration in the vehicle fleet of automated vehicles on the temporal, spatial and also on the technical level.
If you want to know more on about the results of this research, you can find the final report here.