Automatic-Control Challenges in Future Urban Vehicles: A Blend of Chassis, Energy and Networking Management

The topic of this paper is the discussion of new challenges that the scientific field of automatic-control will face in the next decades, in the area of vehicles control. The focus is on urban vehicles for personal mobility, since this type of vehicles will be subject to the biggest changes in the next decades.The paper is articulated in three sections – in a top-down framework – briefly addressing and discussing the following items: the main drivers, which will force a change in urban personal mobility; the main types of vehicles, which are expected to address at best such drivers; the main automatic-control challenges on such type of vehicles.The scope of this paper is purposely non-technical. Its aim is mainly to discuss the emerging new challenges from the perspective of the automatic-control scientists and practitioners. The goal of the paper is to establish a discussion framework on the problems and opportunities, which will arise in this field, in the near future.