Greener transportation with cybercars
Developing cleaner technologies that can be incorporated into everyday life is the aim of many research projects today. Perhaps one of the most interesting for the public is the potential use of cybercars for everyday transport. Cybercars are road vehicles with fully automated driving capabilities. The car can pick up and drop off passengers at their required destination providing door -to -door, on- demand service. Without the need for a driver, the vehicles can be made much smaller than conventional ones. Initial work carried out in the cybernetic transportation program into the efficiency of current public transport practices indicates that very little is gained over use of private vehicles in terms of energy per passenger per km. Models then developed to assess the potential energy saving through the use of cybercars indicated that small cybervehicles operating at low speed provide a significant energy benefit. It was also shown that with certain approaches would allow an increase in capacity while improving safety levels on current roads. Models for optimum forms of city transportation were also assessed. Large scale less frequent journeys were compared with small scale more frequent journeys, and three models evaluating cybertransport were evaluated. For all the models considered, it was found that smaller vehicles provided significant benefits with regard to transport efficiency. The work provides a theoretical foundation to the advantages of the use of the cybercar. In addition to energy saving, there would be a reduction in pollution, noise and congestion. This would be of great benefit to many European cities where traffic has reached intolerable levels. Another important aspect of the cybercar is that it opens a new lease on life for people who are unable to commute independently for health reasons.