Quantifying the Impact of Automated Vehicles on Traffic

One of the major challenges in the development of Automated Driving is its assessment. It is expected that Automated Vehicles behave differently than human drivers. Therefore, mixed human-robot traffic will yield different and new driving situations as human-only traffic. It is important to know how this mixed traffic will change the composition of traffic situations to be able to quantify the impact Automated Vehicles will have on everyday traffic. This paper presents a methodology on how to find metrics that quantify traffic in order to detect changes in the traffic space that will come with the introduction of Automated Vehicles. Additionally, this methodology provides tools to help with the validation of virtual testing platforms such as simulation.