Routing for Traffic Networks with Mixed Autonomy

TL;DR

This paper develops a macroscopic model for traffic routing in mixed networks of human and autonomous vehicles, analyzing how autonomous platooning affects congestion and quantifying inefficiency through bounds on the Price of Anarchy.

Contribution

It introduces two capacity models for autonomous vehicle platooning, derives polynomial delay functions, and bounds the Price of Anarchy considering asymmetry between vehicle types.

Findings

Bounds on PoA depend on polynomial degree and asymmetry

Bounds recover classical results when no asymmetry

PoA bounds are tight and order-optimal in certain cases

Abstract

In this work we propose a macroscopic model for studying routing on networks shared between human-driven and autonomous vehicles that captures the effects of autonomous vehicles forming platoons. We use this to study inefficiency due to selfish routing and bound the Price of Anarchy (PoA), the maximum ratio between total delay experienced by selfish users and the minimum possible total delay. To do so, we establish two road capacity models, each corresponding to an assumption regarding the platooning capabilities of autonomous vehicles. Using these we develop a class of road delay functions, parameterized by the road capacity, that are polynomial with respect to vehicle flow. We then bound the PoA and the bicriteria, another measure of the inefficiency due to selfish routing. We find these bounds depend on: 1) the degree of the polynomial in the road cost function and 2) the degree of asymmetry, the difference in how human-driven and autonomous traffic affect congestion. We demonstrate that these bounds recover the classical bounds when no asymmetry exists. We show the bounds are tight in certain cases and that the PoA bound is order-optimal with respect to the degree of asymmetry.