Economic assessment of autonomous electric microtransit vehicles

Abstract

There is rapidly growing interest in autonomous electric vehicles due to their potential in improving safety, accessibility, and environmental outcomes. However, their market penetration rate is dependent on costs. Use of autonomous electric vehicles for shared-use mobility may improve their cost competitiveness. So far, most of the research has focused on the cost impact of autonomy on taxis and ridesourcing services. Singapore is planning for island-wide deployment of autonomous vehicles for both scheduled and on-demand services as part of their transit system in the year 2030. TUMCREATE developed an autonomous electric vehicle concept, a microtransit vehicle with 30-passenger capacity, which can complement the existing bus transit system. This study aims to determine the cost of autonomous electric microtransit vehicles and compare them to those of buses. A total cost of ownership (TCO) approach was used to compare the lifecycle costs. It was shown that although the acquisition costs of autonomous electric vehicles are higher than those of their conventional counterparts, they can reduce the TCO per passenger-km up to 75% and 60% compared to their conventional counterparts and buses, respectively.