Safety, Mobility, and Environmental Impacts of Driver-Assistance-Enabled Electric Vehicles: An Empirical Study

2026-01-24

AI Summary

This study addresses the unresolved debate regarding the impact of partially automated vehicles on traffic flow by systematically evaluating the combined benefits of electric vehicles (EVs) equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC), leveraging their unique characteristics such as regenerative braking and smooth torque delivery. Using the OpenACC dataset, we establish an empirical analysis framework that aligns lead-vehicle trajectories via dynamic time warping (DTW) to compare ACC-enabled EVs against internal combustion engine vehicles in terms of safety, efficiency, and emissions. Results reveal that EVs exhibit smoother speed profiles, reduced speed fluctuations, and shorter following distances, leading to over 85% fewer critical safety events and a 26.2% reduction in fleet-level emissions, thereby highlighting their distinct advantages in intelligent transportation systems.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Application Domains: Mobility, Driving & Flight
• Intelligent Robots: Multi-Robot Systems

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization

Abstract

The advancement of vehicle automation and the growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) are reshaping transportation systems. While fully automated vehicles are expected to improve traffic stability, efficiency, and sustainability, recent studies suggest that partially automated vehicles, such as those equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC), may adversely affect traffic flow. These drawbacks may not extend to ACC-enabled EVs due to their distinct mechanical characteristics, including regenerative braking and smoother torque delivery. As a result, the impacts of EVs operating under ACC remain insufficiently understood. To address this gap, this study develops an empirical framework using the OpenACC dataset to compare ACC-enabled EVs and internal combustion engine vehicles. Dynamic time warping aligns comparable lead-vehicle trajectories. Results show that EVs exhibit smoother speed profiles, lower speed variability, and shorter spacing, leading to higher efficiency. EVs reduce critical safety events by over 85% and lower platoon-level emissions by up to 26.2%.

Problem

• electric vehicles
• adaptive cruise control
• traffic safety
• emissions
• mobility

Innovation

• adaptive cruise control
• electric vehicles
• dynamic time warping
• regenerative braking
• platoon-level emissions