The energy impact of adaptive cruise control in real-world highway multiple-car-following scenarios

He, Yinglong; Makridis, Michail; Fontaras, Georgios; Mattas, Konstantinos; Xu, Hongming; Ciuffo, Biagio · 2020 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1186/s12544-020-00406-w

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Summary

This study investigates the energy impact of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) in real-world highway multiple-car-following scenarios, addressing a gap in prior research that relied heavily on simulations or test-track experiments. The authors aim to distinguish ACC driving behavior from human driving and quantify its specific effect on energy consumption, independent of vehicle specifications, propulsion systems, and varying road conditions. To achieve this, the researchers conducted field tests on a 124.6 km round-trip highway section in Italy using a platoon of five heterogeneous passenger vehicles. Four vehicles were equipped with high-precision GNSS receivers to collect speed, acceleration, and position data at 10 Hz. The study utilized a "powertrain-free" metric, tractive energy consumption, to isolate driving behavior from propulsion efficiency. To normalize for differences in vehicle mass, aerodynamics, and traffic conditions, the authors developed two techniques: individual normalization (comparing the same vehicle under ACC vs. human control) and platoon normalization (comparing vehicles within the same traffic stream). The results demonstrate that ACC systems induce string instability, where speed perturbations from the lead vehicle are amplified rather than absorbed by following ACC-equipped cars. Quantitative analysis showed that ACC followers exhibited percentage overshoots in speed variations ranging from 15% to 83%, whereas human drivers maintained stability with overshoots near 0%. This instability is attributed to the high responsiveness of ACC systems, which have an average braking response time of 2.1 seconds compared to 2.9 seconds for human drivers. Consequently, ACC driving resulted in higher tractive energy consumption. On an individual level, ACC followers consumed 2.7% to 20.5% more tractive energy than their human-driven counterparts. On a platoon level, tractive energy values increased consecutively by 11.2% to 17.3% as vehicles followed one another, reflecting the propagation of speed perturbations upstream. The study concludes that ACC negatively impacts tractive energy efficiency in car-following scenarios due to its inability to dampen speed variations. These findings contradict previous studies reporting fuel savings, which likely conflated ACC’s benefits in free-flow driving with its inefficiencies in car-following. The research highlights a critical trade-off between stability and responsiveness in ACC design, suggesting that current ACC calibrations prioritize rapid response at the cost of energy efficiency and potential safety risks related to string instability. The proposed methodology offers a robust framework for evaluating the real-world energy impacts of automated driving systems.

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• eco driving