Möjligheter för automatiserade godstransporter I Västerbotten : Vilken påverkan har väginfrastruktur för potentialen till automatiserade transportsystem i region Västerbotten?

The technology behind self-driving trucks in currently under development for deployment on public road. The objective of this study is to explore and understand the number of industries that could be reached by self-driving trucks with the limits of Västerbottens current road network. The effect from implementing self-driving trucks is an emerging research field. We do not understand to what extent the physical infrastructure affect which industries may be able to use self-driving trucks since there is a lack of exploration and research within the scientific literature. The thesis has been conducted by a literature study, interviews, and a spatial analysis. The spatial analysis examined the potential for self-driving trucks to access industries depending on what road infrastructure self-driving trucks are assumed to be able to operate. The number of industries that self-driving trucks can access was calculated for four different subsets of the road networks: The European highway network, National highway network, Functional priority road network and roads with driving lane with over 5m. This resulted in the conclusion that the European highway network had the lowest number of industries within the search radiuses, a considerate amount of all industries (49%) was still within a 1 km radius. The road type “Driving lane with over 5m” having a clear majority of the industries with a total of 94% of the industries within a 1 km radius. The findings of this study suggest that self-driving trucks which are capable of operating only at a limited part of the road network still potentially could be used for a relatively large number of industrial freight transport flows in Västerbotten. This could indicate that self-driving trucks with a limited operating design domain could address a substantial share of the freight transport market.