Autonomous vehicles' impact on the infrastructure development : A study on changing needs for digital and physical infrastructure

The conversion towards a more automated transport system causes new challenges for information sharing, responsibilities and infrastructure requirements. This study examines autonomous vehicles’ need of reliable information and infrastructure, and how it affects the future road transport system, with focus on road signs. The purpose of the study is to investigate how cooperation among different actors can meet the vehicles’ need of information, with the assumption of mixed traffic including vehicles of different automation levels. Interviews were conducted with representatives from the automotive industry, the transport administration, the transport agency and a transport research lab. The results indicate great complexity and diversity among the actors perspectives upon how the automated transport system will be designed in the future. It is clear that autonomous driving will be limited to geofenced areas and restricted under special conditions, at least in the near future. Redundant and secure information obtained e.g. from digital maps, cloud services and vehicle sensors will be important for the future automated vehicle to make accurate strategic-, tactical- and operational decisions. Further, it is important that actors collaborate and share this information with each other