Potentialities of Autonomous Vehicles for Online Monitoring of Motorway Traffic Volume

Abstract

The fact that real-time autonomous vehicle (AV) traffic volume can be collected without a field detector by virtue of advanced global positioning system (GPS) and wireless communication technologies can render a promising solution to online monitoring of traffic volume in the upcoming AV era. To demonstrate this opportunity, this paper proposes a new method to monitor real-time motorway traffic volumes for road locations where no detector is installed using AV traffic volume. The modeling concept is based on the obvious fact that AV traffic volume is a direct portion of total traffic volume. The capabilities of the method are demonstrated through an experimental study using real-world GPS-enabled smartphone vehicle navigation data. The results show that online motorway traffic volume can be effectively monitored throughout the day with 5.69% average error at the 14.91% penetration rate of AVs during the daytime. Therefore, it is expected that AVs can at least be used as complementary means for the role of vehicle detectors in the near future due to the fact that the detection range of AVs is not spatially constrained.