Vehicle Convoy Control for Minimizing Total CO₂ Emissions Considering Social Acceptability

This paper presents a novel vehicle convoy control system that aims to contribute to carbon neutrality while ensuring social acceptance. One of the challenges faced in achieving energy reduction arises from the significant deviation of automated driving and manual driving from conventional driving maneuvers, which can cause discomfort. To address this challenge, we have improved the previously proposed control strategy, which is both simple and effective in reducing CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions from vehicle convoys, in order to minimize discomfort in driving behavior. Additionally, we conducted an effect verification in a realistic environment by classifying two traffic light sequences on an existing route. The results show a reduction of up to 14% in CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions for battery electric vehicles when the controlled vehicle and its following vehicles pass through intersections.