The theoretical benefits of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) are well known: the total elimination of accidents, and a potential 900% increase in capacity by using platooning systems. However, the practical benefits when interaction with non-CAV traffic is taken into consideration are likely to be far fewer. In order to accurately undertake meaningful cost-benefit assessments, simulation has become invaluable.

While the simulation of CAVs has been possible for many years, it has typically been undertaken through making a range of simple approximations and changes to pre-existing behaviour. These typically involve specifying a vehicle type and then associating it with certain new behaviours and parameters, such as shorter desired headways or faster reaction times, to mimic the removal of the human driver from the control loop.

Within HumanDrive however we are modelling autonomous vehicles using a more detailed approach…

Read the full blog post and watch a video of the work we’ve been doing with Highways England around the A19.