Innovations in Road Safety and Transportation

Dear Colleagues,

Transportation systems constantly change to ensure that more people and things can reach their destination in a lower time, more safely, and with the smallest amount of resources possible. Technological innovations hold a lot of promise toward these goals. One of these consists of self-driving vehicles, which move with minimal or null human input. They use integrated technologies, including but not limited to sensors, vehicle-to-everything communication, artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing. The benefits of autonomous vehicles include the following: (1) a reduction in costs per kilometer, (2) increased road capacity, (3) reduced travel and parking search time, (4) more travel comfort, (5) enhanced road safety, (6) possibility to perform activities other than driving, etc.

This innovation has gained considerable attention in research not only related to vehicles but also to infrastructures and human behavior. The potential safety and efficiency gains of autonomous vehicles strictly depend on infrastructure characteristics and vehicle heterogeneity. It is not possible to have proper infrastructure within a few years because the road network is, to a large extent, already developed, and reconstruction projects are conditioned by available funding, physical constraints, or social or environmental considerations. Vehicle homogeneity is also difficult to achieve within a few years. Over a long transition period, there will be a mix of autonomous vehicles with different automation levels and completely unautomated vehicles. The third level of automation is one of the more challenging, as vehicles would be able to drive themselves most of the time but would require a person to take over in road or traffic situations that the vehicles could not handle. This requires a quick intervention by a person that could be relaxing because they are not involved in driving activities.

This Special Issue will address some of the most essential issues currently affecting the benefits of self-driving vehicles. It welcomes high-quality original research and review articles that cover a broad range of topics related to this innovation. Research papers (case studies, reviews, and policy related) from different parts of the world are invited. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Sensors and AI for autonomous vehicles.
• Autonomous vehicle testing in complex environments.
• Acceptance of self-driving cars.
• Operational design domain for automated vehicles.
• Road design rules to accommodate autonomous vehicles with different levels of automation.
• Optimization procedures for upgrading existing infrastructure to accommodate autonomous vehicles with different levels of automation.
• Effects of autonomous vehicles penetration rate.
• Truck platooning.
• Weather and pavement condition effects on the “behavior” of autonomous vehicles.
• Roadside safety decreasing needs.

Prof. Dr. Mariano Pernetti
Prof. Dr. Massimo Losa
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• road safety
• transport infrastructures
• intelligent transportation systems
• autonomous vehicles
• operational design domain
• truck platooning
• driving simulation