Trade-off between safety, mobility and energy in automated vehicles

We studied how automated vehicle (AV) following behavior affects safety, traffic flow, and energy use. Using a simple model, we found that keeping a very short distance between AVs (called headway) can lead to instability. To stay stable and save energy, AVs may need to leave more space between each other. On the other hand, allowing some instability could let AVs follow more closely, but this might use more energy. These results were confirmed through real-world tests with different vehicles.