- Valet Parking
The vehicle’s independence that enables it to move to the user from the parking lot and then drop the user at the set destination and park itself in a parking lot is the basic presupposition of the autonomous valet parking. The utilisation of autonomous valet parking would eliminate the effort that the driver is required to put in getting the vehicle from the parking space and leaving it back after a ride. This appears to be a door to door service to the users, similar to a taxi but different in the fact that the user would monitor the driving task. The gross time of travel would get reduced as the ingress and egress of the vehicle is made shorter. Various amenities as well as facilities could be improved, including number of seats, access to net, capacity, and multi-media. A larger fleet would provide the possibility of allotting different prices for different vehicles equivalent to the existing establishment-based car-sharing and conventional car rental services.
Autonomous valet parking makes the need of stations unnecessary; however, terminals and stations could be set up to bring everything under one roof, which would increase the efficiency of vehicle maintenance. An advantage is that these terminals need to be situated close to customers but can be situated at a low-cost location. This could consume some time to reach the customer, which is regarded as ‘dead’ time since during the travel the vehicle has no other use. In an effort to reduce this dead time, various small terminals can be densely spread over the operating area. - Fully Automated car sharing with driver
This mechanism assumes that the vehicle moves autonomously with drivers having the ability to drive independently. The benefits are lesser when compared to autonomous valet parking, from the viewpoint of car sharing. The only change this would bring in current car sharing is that it gives the driver the freedom of driving if he/she wishes to drive. On some routes where autonomous driving may be banned, for example, roads with many pedestrians, this case would be advantageous. Such routes are mainly found in urban areas. On the other hand, in rural areas or areas far away from cities the uses of full automation of driving mechanism may be promising, However, this type of model offers less benefits compared to the previous use case. - Car-sharing methods
This case supposes that the autonomous vehicle does not need any driver, even as a back up option. This eliminated the driver workstation, which opens up a whole new world of interior designing of vehicles. Now this vehicle will be viewed more like a compartment on a highway. This also opens up a platform that allows for a wide range of activities within the vehicle to be performed, like reading, chatting, playing, using of mobile phones and laptops, or even sleeping for a brief amount of time during the journey. Car sharing as vehicle on demand shows similarities to the existing taxi ride; however, it has the potential to replace taxis with its availability to a broader range of users.
Mobility and Autonomous Driving
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