The rapid development of communication technology and the need to cater to the aging population in developed countries has potentially made AVs a necessity and a vital business paradigm. Moreover, the automotive industry spends around €77 billion worldwide on R&D in order to nurture innovation and to stay competitive.
For example, the advent of the Google car brought AVs to the spotlight. Nevertheless, there has been an acceleration in the research and development efforts in the last decade to bring the idea of the AV to fruition. Although the idea of driverless vehicles has been around for decades, the exorbitant costs have hindered large-scale production. These technologies have given rise to the prospect of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology which aims to reduce crashes, energy consumption, pollution, and congestion while at the same time increasing transport accessibility. New technologies in communication and robotics have had a substantial influence on our daily lifestyle of which transportation is no exception. This study contributes to the literature on two fronts: (i) it attempts to shed light on future opportunities as well as possible hurdles associated with AV technology and (ii) it conceptualizes a navigation model for the AV which leads to highly efficient traffic circulations. To this end, we propose a conceptual navigation model based on a fleet of AVs that are centrally dispatched over a network seeking system optimization. Connected-vehicle technology provides a great opportunity to implement an efficient and intelligent routing system. A major knowledge gap exists in AV technology with respect to routing behaviors.
An indispensable part of a prospective AV development is communication over cars and infrastructure (connected vehicles). This paper provides a comprehensive review of the relevant literature and explores a broad spectrum of issues from safety to machine ethics. This emerging technology also has far-reaching applications and implications beyond all current expectations. AV technologies can decrease the transportation cost and increase accessibility to low-income households and persons with mobility issues. This study investigates the challenges and opportunities pertaining to transportation policies that may arise as a result of emerging autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies.