Impacts of highly automated driving

The Hi-Drive project aims to extend the ODD and advance the European state-of-the-art in automated driving from SAE level 3 towards high automation by implementing technology enablers, such as connectivity and positioning support. This will lead to highly capable CAD functions, operating in urban traffic and on motorways. One of the objectives of Hi-Drive is to assess the societal impacts of highly automated driving when used by large populations. The project estimates the impacts in specific scenarios and on a European level after their market introduction, and the contribution of the technology enablers. The impact areas covered in the assessment include traffic safety and efficiency, environment, mobility from a single traveller's viewpoint, and the transport system. The preliminary results presented in this paper indicate that there is a willingness to use highly automated driving; the ADFs can reduce crash risk, especially when combined with technology enablers; the preliminary results on emissions are mixed; and the transport-system-level impacts are small in terms of relative vehicle-kilometres travelled.