Abstract

utomobile has become the dominant transport mode in the world in the last century. In order to meet a continuously growing demand for transport, one solution is to change the control approach for vehicle to full driving automation, which removes the driver from the control loop to improve efficiency and reduce accidents. Recent work shows that there are several realistic paths towards this deployment : driving assistance on passenger cars, automated commercial vehicles on dedicated infrastructures, and new forms of urban transport (car-sharing and cybercars). Cybercars have already been put into operation in Europe, and it seems that this approach could lead the way towards full automation on most urban, and later interurban infrastructures. The European project CyberCars has brought many improvements in the technology needed to operate cybercars over the last three years. A new, larger European project is now being prepared to carry this work further in order to meet more ambitious objectives in terms of safety and efficiency. This paper will present past and present technologies and will focus on the future developments.

Abstract

http://trb.org/; International audience; In the past few years, the European Commission has financed several projects to examine how new technologies could improve the sustainability of European cities. These technologies concern new public transportation modes such as guided buses to form high capacity networks similar to light rail but at a lower cost and better flexibility, PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) and cybercars (small urban vehicles with fully automatic driving capabilities to be used in carsharing mode, mostly as a complement to mass transport). They also concern private vehicles with technologies which could improve the efficiency of the vehicles as well as their safety (Intelligent Speed Adaptation, Adaptive Cruise .Control, Stop&Go, Lane Keeping,...) and how these new vehicles can complement mass transport in the form of car-sharing services.