SAE automated driving levels are irrelevant for cities. A "Civic level" can help cities get ONLY the positive impacts from autonomous vehicles

If you have read something about autonomous vehicles since 2014, the first or second phrase almost certainly talked about SAE's J3016 vehicle automation levels standard. This standard created a scale of 6 levels, from 0 to 5, that describes how vehicle control and oversight are split between a human and a "computer driver". Its publication coincides with the growing realisation among urban and mobility experts of the potentially devastating effects that empty (autonomous) cars roaming city streets could have on congestion, pollution, traffic and road safety. But SAE levels, focusing on the technical aspects of vehicle control automation, don't reflect at all these concerns.

Briefly summarized, at SAE standard's levels 0 to 3, a human is in charge of controlling or supervising the vehicle and its surroundings, while at level 4 or 5, the "automated driving system" is able to control the vehicle independently of human supervision. From the transport planning and operation perspectives though, levels 0 to 3 are irrelevant, as they still require the driver's presence, and only entirely computer-controlled vehicles (levels 4 and 5), by allowing unmanned road vehicle operation, can really disrupt of the century-old road transportation sector. Unfortunately, the lack of a common language regarding the impacts of this disruption makes extremely difficult for transport planning and operation professionals to assess whether they are positive or negative, and plan in consequence. Since we are at the dawn of the emergence of level 4 and 5 autonomous vehicle applications, it is essential to build a common language to fill this gap. A "Civic level" could do the job of creating this common language, to help transport professionals discuss, design, plan, build and operate systems which (tar)get positive impacts from autonomous vehicles. This article is a first draft of this potential standard. This standard would only concern road vehicles on rubber wheels, as railway vehicles, being infrastructure-heavy investments, are built with economic and environmental considerations from the start.

The starting point of this Civic level should be the present state of the transportation sector. Low "civic levels" therefore mean that an application is as unsustainable as a private car with a single passenger, and high "civic levels" indicate that an autonomous vehicle application brings positive impacts and reduces negative ones. The initial version concerns passenger-oriented applications only, but the civic levels can certainly be extended to goods transportation. Here are some ideas for each of the levels:

1. Civic Level 0 (CL0): CL0 represents the starting point of the transportation system today. Thus, civic level 1 autonomous vehicles concerns individually owned (e.g. not shared) autonomous vehicles for individual use. A typical example of a civic level 1 is a Tesla privately owned and operated vehicle. CL0 vehicles concerns in fact all vehicles with SAE automated driving level 0 to 3, although vehicles with SAE automated driving level 4 and 5 can also have a Civic Level 0 if they are privately owned and used.
2. Civic Level 1 (CL1): A CL1 autonomous vehicle applications concerns privately owned autonomous vehicles, eventually shared for specific trips. An example of this would be a private autonomous vehicle used by its owner for car-pooling.
3. Civic level 2 (CL2): A CL2 autonomous vehicle application concerns shared autonomous vehicles used for individual trips. The typical example are robotaxis, which are not privately owned, but which are exclusively used for individual trips, and compete against public transport service and other sustainable transport modes.
4. Civic level 3 (CL3): A CL3 autonomous vehicle application concerns shared vehicles used for shared trips of a specific group of people, and unlinked from public transport services. An example of CL3 applications are low speed autonomous shuttles in private areas, or in places where sustainable transport modes (i.e. buses, metros, shared bikes, etc.) are available.
5. Civic level 4 (CL4): A CL4 autonomous vehicle application concerns shared vehicles available for public use in public roads and fully integrated with traditional public transport. A typical example would be a system in areas where traditional public transport is not available today. A CL4 autonomous vehicle application does not compete with public transport.

As it can be seen, CLs concern the environmental, economic and financial sustainability of an autonomous vehicle application. As such, the impacts of each Civic level can be assessed through several indicators, such as parking space usage, energy consumption per passenger?km, etc. The higher Civic levels are therefore those that reduce the most the negative impact of the present transportation system. CLs could even become a norm to assess the sustainability of an autonomous vehicle application, and even be linked to a taxation system to encourage the most positive applications, and serve as a funding source for cities and metropolitan areas.

Do you know any applications that you can classify in this Civic Level scale?