Autonomous vehicles could bring higher energy demands for fleets

Autonomous vehicles could have significantly higher energy requirements than conventional electric vehicles, creating potential implications for range, charging and fleet operations, according to FleetCheck.

The fleet software specialist highlighted new research published in Nature which modelled the energy demands of prototype robotaxis. It found that around 57% of total power consumption was used for propulsion, with the remainder attributed to onboard sensing and computing, communications, fleet management and offboard infrastructure including video storage and model retraining.

“This paper does suggest there is a significant increase in power consumption from using AV technology, a factor that could play a part in their adoption by fleets,” he said.

“Reduced range and the necessity to schedule more frequent charging are key operational considerations. They could even be the difference between choosing to use an EV and staying with a conventional vehicle.”

The research focuses on robotaxis, which represent one of the most sophisticated applications of autonomous vehicle technology currently being tested on public roads. However, Avent said increasing levels of automation in other cars and vans could also add to their energy requirements.

While there is currently little evidence that vehicles using existing advanced driver assistance systems experience dramatically higher power demands, more sophisticated autonomous systems are likely to require additional computing and sensing capability.

Avent said fleets could therefore increasingly need to consider how an EV’s available energy is divided between propulsion, climate control and autonomous equipment when assessing vehicle suitability.

“Robotaxis are the current apex of AV capabilities and use a range of power-hungry equipment but the technology is starting to be seen on a wider range of cars and there has been very little conversation about its impact on energy use,” he added.

FleetCheck said current robotaxi trials in London could provide useful real-world evidence about the practical operation of autonomous vehicles, including energy consumption, maintenance requirements and downtime.

Avent called on companies involved in the trials to make operational findings available to the wider fleet sector to help businesses assess the potential implications of adopting autonomous technology.