In brief, the conference paper surveys the impact of autonomous vehicles (AV) using Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) simulation models and the PTV’s VISSIM traffic simulator. The paper majorly seeks to evaluate AVs’ efficiency in two areas: freeways and signalled junctions (roundabouts and plain intersections). The paper’s working hypothesis is that AVs have a lower risk of collision than human-driven vehicles (HV) and that implementing them would eliminate traffic accidents caused by human fault.
Morando (2018) observed that when critical parameters such as lane change preferences (on freeways), sight distance, and minimum acceptable gap for turning are fine-tuned to their optimal thresholds, AVs act less aggressively, thus eliminating road incident occurrences. The paper also established that AVs depict less assertive behaviours such as tailgating and keeping dangerously short standstill distance, which is known to increase the risk of road rage (Morando, 2018). On average, AV’s ability to respond to abrupt proximity was found to be higher than HVs. For instance, AVs had a 75% chance of averting a collision with a lower time to collision (TTC) value of 0.75 to 1.5 seconds, as compared to humans, who need 5seconds or more.
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From the paper, AVs have three distinct advantages regarding collisions and safety in motion. AVs are safer, given that their conflict rates were 15% to 52% lower than HVs for the same penetration rates for the tests conducted in Germany, New Zealand, and California, as well as the simulations. At roundabouts and other signalized intersections, AVs reduce the number of conflicts by 20 to 65 percent. Also, given that AVs are smart and connected with others, they can safely drive at higher speeds and shorter headways because they are aware of their ‘peer’ positions. On the other hand, Morando (2018) admits that cybersecurity is a challenge, given the self-driving cars will be connected to a public cloud over a network. Without robust security measures, hackers could break in and wreak havoc.
References
Morando, M. M., Tian, Q., Truong, L. T., & Vu, H. L. (2018). “Studying The Safety Impact of Autonomous Vehicles Using Simulation-Based Surrogate Safety Measures.” Journal of Advanced Transportation. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/6135183
