Highly automated driving and its requirements on road planning and design

This paper presents the results of a study on road infrastructure requirements in the context of increased use of highly automated vehicles. An investigation of the interplay between road infrastructure and automated vehicles was performed, with the aim of defining requirements for future road design and planning towards safe and efficient road traffic. Based on a comprehensive review of literature, three subgroups of automated driving systems have been selected for further analysis, which differ in their purpose of use, technologies applied and market readiness: 1) Lane assistance, 2) Collision avoidance and 3) Speed control systems. Results from an online expert survey conducted for this work indicate that the main challenges for the introduction of highly automated vehicles are complex urban environments, temporary work zones and poor visibility due to bad weather condition. Following a list of requirements for road engineering derived from those results, the paper is concluded with a discussion about future needs for amendments in road planning and design regulations.