All automobile manufacturing companies, Google and Microsoft have announced recently their production of the Fully Automated Autonomous Vehicles (FAAVs), otherwise known as driverless cars. A few FAAVs would be availa...All automobile manufacturing companies, Google and Microsoft have announced recently their production of the Fully Automated Autonomous Vehicles (FAAVs), otherwise known as driverless cars. A few FAAVs would be available in the market as early as in 2018, but mostly in 2020’s. When FAAVs will be available to and become affordable by the average consumers, the implications to the society would be far reaching. The purpose of the paper is to examine the prospect of the popularity of FAAVs and their socio-economic implications to the future society of the World. The paper examines potential impacts on selected sectors of the society including changes in demand for automobiles, its impact on the use of oil, on the environment, and on urban land uses, to list a few.展开更多
A general review of the socio-economic impact of the intelligent transport system （ITS） is presented with a case study to demonstrate the data envelopment analysis method. Cost-benefit analyses are still the dominan...A general review of the socio-economic impact of the intelligent transport system （ITS） is presented with a case study to demonstrate the data envelopment analysis method. Cost-benefit analyses are still the dominant method for evaluating ITS and other transport engineering projects, while cost effective analyses and multi-criteria appraisals are widely used to define and prioritize objectives by providing useful information for the most promising policy decisions. Both cost-benefit analyses and a data envelopment analysis method are applied to analyze the socio-economic impact of convoy driving systems. The main findings are that a convoy provides a worthwhile benefit-cost ratio when more than 30% of the traffics in the convoys and the traffic load exceeds 5500 vehicles/h for a three-lane motorway. The results also show that for a fixed percentage of convoys, increased demand will increase the data envelopment analysis method relative efficiency and that the neglect of certain output indicators of an ITS may result in underestimation of the system effects.展开更多
文摘All automobile manufacturing companies, Google and Microsoft have announced recently their production of the Fully Automated Autonomous Vehicles (FAAVs), otherwise known as driverless cars. A few FAAVs would be available in the market as early as in 2018, but mostly in 2020’s. When FAAVs will be available to and become affordable by the average consumers, the implications to the society would be far reaching. The purpose of the paper is to examine the prospect of the popularity of FAAVs and their socio-economic implications to the future society of the World. The paper examines potential impacts on selected sectors of the society including changes in demand for automobiles, its impact on the use of oil, on the environment, and on urban land uses, to list a few.
文摘A general review of the socio-economic impact of the intelligent transport system （ITS） is presented with a case study to demonstrate the data envelopment analysis method. Cost-benefit analyses are still the dominant method for evaluating ITS and other transport engineering projects, while cost effective analyses and multi-criteria appraisals are widely used to define and prioritize objectives by providing useful information for the most promising policy decisions. Both cost-benefit analyses and a data envelopment analysis method are applied to analyze the socio-economic impact of convoy driving systems. The main findings are that a convoy provides a worthwhile benefit-cost ratio when more than 30% of the traffics in the convoys and the traffic load exceeds 5500 vehicles/h for a three-lane motorway. The results also show that for a fixed percentage of convoys, increased demand will increase the data envelopment analysis method relative efficiency and that the neglect of certain output indicators of an ITS may result in underestimation of the system effects.
