Cost-Effectiveness of 5G Teleoperated Automated Buses

Abstract

The emerging trends in automation and changes in people’s mobility habits have increased interest in using automated buses for public transportation. Integrating automated buses into current public transportation systems is believed to provide many benefits, such as increased safety, flexibility and accessibility. This thesis explores whether cost-effectiveness is another benefit that could be realized by utilizing automated buses.

Labor costs currently account for a large share of the total public transportation costs. Automated buses can save on driver costs, provided that each bus does not require a dedicated driver. Labor costs cannot be entirely eliminated as the buses, while mainly driving on their own, still occasionally need human attention. Cost savings are possible if in-vehicle drivers can be replaced by remote operators, who can operate multiple buses at the same time. To assess the magnitude of the potential cost savings, this thesis forms an estimation of the number of buses that can be designated to a single operator.

A simulation is used as the method to establish the operator capacity. The input data for the simulation and background information on automated buses are gained by analyzing data from three different robot bus trials that were organized in Finland. A literature review and a small-scale practical remote driving experiment are used to assess the feasibility of remotely operating automated buses over a 5G network.

The results of this thesis demonstrate that no insurmountable barriers exist for remotely operating several automated buses at the same time. The number of buses that can still be reasonably supervised by one operator depends on the frequency and duration of human interventions required by the fleet of automated buses. For the current class of automated buses, the operator capacity is estimated to be a maximum of five buses. The capacity is expected to increase once automated buses become more autonomous and less reliant on human operators.

Although automated buses have higher purchase prices than conventional buses, their total cost of ownership is already lower when at least two buses are designated to the same operator. This means that once regulations allow vehicles without designated drivers and automated driving technology reaches sufficient reliability, automated buses can provide a compelling and cost-effective option to conventional buses.