Energy Costs of Safe Speed Policies in a Pedestrian-crossing Scenario

Distracted pedestrians account for approximately 7% of road fatalities. Thanks to recent technological advances in autonomous driving, it is possible to envision self-driving cars that can mitigate the risk of pedestrians unexpectedly crossing the road, thereby substantially reducing the number of fatalities. This paper considers a risk-mitigation strategy based on a temporary reduction in the velocity near pedestrians. Despite being effective at reducing the risk of accidents, this policy comes with a significant energy cost. We analyze the cost of such a policy considering a standard non-regenerative powertrain and a theoretical 100% regeneration powertrain. The results show that a regenerative powertrain can compensate for the additional energy cost.