The Effect of Self-Driving Car on Urban Traffic

Abstract

Based on the idea of infinitesimal analysis, we establish the basic model of relation between speed and flow. Since putting a certain amount of self-driving car will affect the average speed of mixed traffic flow, we choose the proportion of self-driving car to be a variable, denoted by k. Based on the least square method, we find two critical values of k that are 38.63% and 68.26%. When k < 38.63%, the self-driving cars have a negative influence to the traffic. When 38.63% < k < 68.26%, they have a positive influence to the traffic. When k > 68.26%, they have significant improvement to the traffic capacity of the road.