| 英文摘要: | Connected and automated vehicles enable new business models, such as self-driving taxis, that could transform transportation. These models have the potential to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions, but only if they are developed with energy use in mind. Modern life in the developed world is built on the availability of reliable, low-cost transportation, including public transit, cheap freight and, of course, the personal automobile. But while transportation supports a high quality of life, the sector consumes 62% of petroleum and releases 13% of greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide. Transportation poses a particularly daunting challenge in the global drive to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, particularly in light of forecast increases in individual car ownership and travel worldwide. In Nature Climate Change, Greenblatt and Saxena1 contribute an exciting addition to the emerging field of analysis exploring the role of advanced connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) as part of the solution: they find that CAV technologies, through automated taxi services, could reduce per-vehicle emissions by more than 90%.
© SILICONVALLEYSTOCK / ALAMY
Self-driving taxis could take on a small form factor and move people cheaply and efficiently. Recently, technology companies such as Google have helped to speed vehicle development.
- Greenblatt, J. B. & Saxena, S. Nature Clim. Change 5, 860–863 (2015).
- Anderson, J. M. et al. Autonomous Vehicle Technology: A Guide for Policymakers (RAND, 2014); http://go.nature.com/l6NcH7
- Brown, A., Gonder, J. & Repac, B. in Road Vehicle Automation (eds Meyer, G. & Beiker, B.) 137–153 (Lecture Notes in Mobility, Springer, 2014); http://go.nature.com/jIl9yX
- MacKenzie, D., Wadud, Z. & Leiby, P. First-Order Estimate of Energy Impacts of Automated Vehicles in the United States (Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, 2014); http://go.nature.com/w4WEbZ
- Morrow, W. R. III et al. in Road Vehicle Automation (eds Meyer, G. & Beiker, B.) 127–135 (Lecture Notes in Mobility, Springer, 2014); http://go.nature.com/H2DPCu
Download references
Affiliations
-
Austin Brown is at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 901 D. Street SW, Suite 930, Washington DC 20024, USA
|