Abstract:

The emergence of on-demand shared autonomous electric vehicle (SAEV) service requires careful charging station planning and a joint charging and repositioning strategy to mitigate empty travel. This study couples charging and repositioning events to improve service quality (rider wait times), reduce empty travel due to repositioning or charging, and improve fleet utilization (average daily trips per vehicle and charging queues). This synergy is explored for the Austin, Texas region using POLARIS, an agent-based model. On average, wait times were 39% lower, and the average daily trips served per SAEV increased to 6.4 (or 28%) compared to SAEV repositioning with heuristic charging. Coupling repositioning with charging decreased the fleet's percent empty travel on average by 1.6%, relative to the scenario treating them as independent events (which varies by charging station design). Sparser charging stations reduce investment costs, and operators can leverage this framework to keep traveler wait times low.