Autonomous mobility-on-demand systems for future urban mobility

Abstract

This chapter discusses the operational and economic aspects of autonomous mobility-on-demand (AMoD) systems, a transformative and rapidly developing mode of transportation wherein robotic, self-driving vehicles transport customers in a given environment. Specifically, AMoD systems are addressed along three dimensions: (1) modeling, that is analytical models capturing salient dynamic and stochastic features of customer demand, (2) control, that is coordination algorithms for the vehicles aimed at throughput maximization, and (3) economic, that is fleet sizing and financial analyses for case studies of New York City and Singapore. Collectively, the models and methods presented in this chapter enables a rigorous assessment of the value of AMoD systems. In particular, the case study of New York City shows that the current taxi demand in Manhattan can be met with about 8000 robotic vehicles (roughly 70 % of the size of the current taxi fleet), while the case study of Singapore suggests that an AMoD system can meet the personal mobility need of the entire population of Singapore with a number of robotic vehicles roughly equal to 1/3 of the current number of passenger vehicles. Directions for future research on AMoD systems are presented and discussed.