Impact of Connected and Automated Vehicles on Passenger Comfort of Traffic Flow with Vehicle-to-vehicle Communications

Extended transit time and increased consumer expectations arouse an interest in passenger comfort research. Few studies have been conducted on passenger comfort of Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) traffic flow, thereby leaving a research gap. This paper focuses on filling this research gap and evaluating CAV impact on passenger comfort from the traffic flow perspective. Specifically, optimal stability of traffic flow mixed with Manual Driven Vehicles (MDV) and CAV is desired to improve passenger comfort. For describing stability condition of the mixed traffic flow, in which multiple connected feedbacks of CAV exist with Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications, local vehicular platoons with uniform structure are considered to be the optimization objective. Its stability charts with respect to equilibrium speeds and CAV feedback gains are calculated based on transfer function theory, thereby controlling CAV feedback gains for optimal stability. The CAV impact on the passenger comfort is evaluated under optimal control results of CAV feedback gains, by using numerical simulations under car-following models. It is indicated that stability optimization benefits passenger comfort of the mixed CAV traffic flow.