Engineers should start thinking now about how to provide for autonomous vehicles.
That’s the message for Australia from SMEC transport planning technical principal David Freer who has 30 years’ experience in management and assessment of transport systems across road design engineering, modelling, land use planning, travel behaviour and freight logistics.
Although it will be some time before the autonomous vehicle (AV) is “par for the course on our roads, we can start planning now for what is a near-future inevitability”, Freer says in engineering forum Create.
He says there will be an extended transitional phase from driver-operated to computer-operated vehicles. “We are in this transitional phase now. New cars already include in-built safety features that allow the car to take over if danger is detected, such as emergency braking, weave-lane control and speed limiters.”
Freer warns that on roads in which both human-driven cars and AVs interact, conflict will be likely.
“Until we fully transition to an autonomous fleet, road design — especially major highways — might require AV-only lanes and a mixture of other road layout models that accommodate a new driving regime.”
Freer says that presents an array of new challenges for engineers.
Despite design changes over time to improve road safety, human error is the cause of 90% of accidents.
“AVs, theoretically, should remove the human-driver behaviours element, and replace human error with a computer-based, system-wide approach that interacts with other road users,” Freer says.
This could remove the need for much of the operational and safety design measures previously required as an AV may not need lanes, signs, traffic lights, crash barriers or parking bays, he speculates.
There’s also a high risk of building redundant infrastructure, Freer warns, with complicated and costly road design features currently based on the human-driven vehicle.
“The life cycle of this infrastructure is at least 20 to 30 years and risks becoming redundant when an AV fleet requires road space. Road design will therefore need to be flexible to allow for relatively simple augmentation to support AVs.”
The private sector’s growing influence on road infrastructure construction and operation, such as toll roads, means that sector is more likely to quickly move to an AV-based design model.
This could lead to a two-level road system – one based on fee-paying AVs, the other a free but mixed-vehicle type, Freer believes.
As digital disruption and demand for AVs continues, engineers will have to adapt their skills accordingly, he says.
“What we face now is merely a new and exciting evolutionary stage.”
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