Sharing the road: the economics of autonomous vehicles

Automated cars are likely to change mobility substantially in the coming years. Much research is developed in engineering, about legal and behavioral issues, but the economics of autonomous vehicle remains an open area. In this paper, we consider a single-bottleneck situation, in which the capacity of the freeway is divided between conventional and autonomous vehicles. Users of conventional vehicles freely choose their departure time from home, while users of autonomous vehicles collaborate with a central operator that ensures they do not queue. An individual-specific cooperation cost is integrated in the modeling framework. We address the following key issues: how should infrastructure be allocated to conventional and automated cars? Are there synergies between the two fleets of vehicle? How should each infrastructure be tolled? Should the government be a toll leader? Which regulations are needed?

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