Impact assessment of cooperative and automated vehicles

Within the scope of the C-Roads Platform, a key element is the evaluation and assessment of impacts related to the deployment of cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) services, as a first step in the direction of cooperative and automated vehicles. Therefore, while developing its activities, each C-Roads national pilot has to deal with these issues, with the support of the guidelines provided by the “evaluation and assessment plan,” drafted by the Working Group WG3 of the C-Roads Platform [1]. In particular, within the activities of the C-Roads pilot in Italy, different technologies are being deployed during the project (2017–20): (1) C-ITS services that through V2X communications allow a seamless information flow and enhance both the awareness of human drivers and the perception of automated and semiautomated vehicles; (2) truck platooning, a system that allows heavy vehicles to travel with a reduced headway between each other, thus lowering the aerodynamic resistance, promoting a more efficient driving regime and lowering fuel consumption; and (3) The Highway Chauffeur, an L3 system* [2] capable of driving the vehicle autonomously under certain conditions. Testing this set of widely different systems and allowing these to interact during the field tests on public roads is a challenging activity. Besides technical validation issues, different preliminary activities must be performed before the systems can be deployed, among which is the study, design and preparation of the evaluation and assessment of the systems. To carry out these tasks, a clear method must be followed; the approach defined by the C-Roads Platform and applied to the Italian pilot is presented in this chapter.