Analysis of an autonomous driving modular bus system

Abstract

One of the main complaints about the performance of the bus systems is the time lost at recurrent stops along the route, that results in a low bus speed service. Among the potential measures to speed up the bus service, the introduction of the Autonomous Driving Modular Bus, able to adjust the transport unit by coupling or decoupled pods, will represent a new paradigm in the provision of service. This concept is able to maintain high stable cruising speeds to the transport unit, decoupling only one pod with passengers that may alight at the next stop. This paper analyze the potentialities of this concept in terms of user travel times and operationg cost. This work also features the formulation and analytical models to calculate the performance and oeprational variables, implementing them into two existing bus lines in Barcelona.