Evaluation of energy‐saving ability of PnG‐ACC mode: From the single vehicle to the emerging mixed traffic flow

Abstract Fuel consumption from the transportation system has always been one of the major sources of pollution and resource waste in our daily lives. The pulse and glide (PnG) mode, as a technology for vehicle energy conservation, has been proven to have a remarkable fuel saving ability in single vehicles. However, the existing PnG mode research is only used in single vehicles on freeways or highways, because once it is applied in traffic flow at intersections, the heterogeneity of human driver behavior may lead to high crash and congestion risks. Fortunately, the emergence of adaptive cruise control (ACC) may reduce the heterogeneity of human driver behavior in the emerging mixed traffic. Given this, this study proposes a PnG control approach for vehicles that integrates dynamic programming and ACC, namely, PnG‐ACC mode, aiming to evaluate the fuel saving ability of applying the PnG‐ACC mode in the emerging mixed traffic flow at intersections. The results show that (1) the PnG‐ACC mode could save 1.4%–24.3% more fuel than the non‐PnG mode; (2) when the market penetration rate is 25%, the fuel saving effect is the most significant, reaching 24.3%; and (3) when the average speed is 40 km/h, the fuel saving effect is the most significant, reaching 17.5%. The findings of this study could provide references for the development of vehicle fuel saving control technologies and autonomous driving technologies. To the best of authors' knowledge, this study is the first to evaluate the fuel saving ability of the PnG mode in the emerging mixed traffic flow at intersections.