The overall project goal was to stimulate, support and boost the development of electrification of vehicles and roads. This was achieved by the establishment of a demonstration environment in a driving simulator that enables early introduction of user friendly systems with high quality. The Swedish Riksdag’s goal of a fossil free transport sector year 2030 means a fundamental change in the transport sector. One way to reach this target is by electrification. To successfully implement such systems, more effort on increasing knowledge and innovations is needed. This project has used a driving simulator in order to develop, evaluate and demonstrate different concepts of electrification of roads and vehicles. A demonstration environment was created based on technical descriptions of electrification concepts, hybrid vehicles and roads. This environment was implemented in VTI Driving simulator SIM II. The demonstration environment consists of a model of road 40 between Gothenburg and Borås where a number of electrification concepts are shown, and a model of a hybrid truck including both a combustion engine and an electric machine. A study was conducted in order to evaluate user’s experience of driving on an electric road. 25 truck drivers drove a 40 kilometre long route, both with a hybrid truck on the electric road and with a conventional truck on the same road without electrification. Driving with electrification showed no remarkable difference on the drivers’ experience of safety and aestethics or the driving behavior compared to no electrification. The exception was average speed which was 2 kilometre/hour higher when driving with electrification. The energy consumption decreased by 35 per cent with electrification. In order to disseminate project results to actors and potential users of electric roads, a large number of simulator demonstrations were conducted. A film describing electric roads and driving simulator methodology was produced in order to reach an even broader public. In addition, a portable driving simulator that is easily transported, was constructed with the purpose to demonstrate electric road environments at different events like seminars, workshops and exhibitions. The demonstration environment for electric roads in the driving simulator is now ready to be used for continued development and evaluation of electric road concepts and the vehicles that will be a part of such systems. (Author/publisher)
Abstract