Autonomous Mobility on Demand in cities: addressing the minimum fleet problem for an autonomous car sharing service based on massive real trip data

Autonomous Mobility on Demand in cities: addressing the minimum fleet problem for an autonomous car sharing service based on massive real trip data | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Autonomous Mobility on Demand in cities: addressing the minimum fleet problem for an autonomous car sharing service based on massive real trip data Antonio Pagliaroli, Silvia Strada, Simone Scevaroli, Sergio Savaresi This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6129136/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 25 Sep, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 12 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Rapid urbanization has led to escalating traffic congestion, vehicle density, and environmental degradation. Although various policy measures, such as congestion pricing, reduced speed limits, and multimodal incentives, can help, they often prove insufficient to substantially reduce private car ownership. In parallel, fully autonomous “robotaxi” fleets face significant technical and regulatory hurdles, limiting their near term feasibility. This study proposes a valet style Autonomous Mobility on Demand(AMoD) service as a practical alternative. In this scenario, vehicles navigate themselves (empty) to demand locations and are then driven by users for their trips, reducing the complexity associated with fully driverless operations. Using a custom-built simulator and real world travel demand data from over 28,000 private car trips in Milan (Italy), the valet style AMoD fleet size is optimized under the defined quality of service constraints: a maximum waiting time of 20 minutes and fewer than 2% of unmet requests. Results show that a fleet of 2,300 shared autonomous vehicles could serve nearly all trips, achieving more than a 12:1 reduction compared to private car usage. Moreover, the valet style AMoD service is compared with traditional free-floating car sharing, demonstrating significantly higher efficiency and vehicle utilization. These findings highlight the potential of partial autonomy to deliver near term urban transportation services, ensuring congestion relief and environmental benefits, paving the way toward a more sustainable urban people mobility. Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing/Scientific data Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing/Computer science Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing/Computational science Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing/Information technology Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 25 Sep, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 01 Jul, 2025 Reviews received at journal 27 Jun, 2025 Reviews received at journal 20 Jun, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 Jun, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 Jun, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 05 Jun, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 04 Jun, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 03 Jun, 2025 Editor invited by journal 28 Mar, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 06 Mar, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 01 Mar, 2025 First submitted to journal 28 Feb, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6129136","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":442101790,"identity":"f663a6ca-80c8-46dd-9bdd-21497401600c","order_by":0,"name":"Antonio Pagliaroli","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Politecnico di Milano","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Antonio","middleName":"","lastName":"Pagliaroli","suffix":""},{"id":442101791,"identity":"f36d6660-6075-43e3-9791-b4bae21743b5","order_by":1,"name":"Silvia Strada","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Politecnico di Milano","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Silvia","middleName":"","lastName":"Strada","suffix":""},{"id":442101792,"identity":"cca18238-6797-48d4-a4eb-a23b7d24b45d","order_by":2,"name":"Simone Scevaroli","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Politecnico di Milano","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Simone","middleName":"","lastName":"Scevaroli","suffix":""},{"id":442101793,"identity":"e9cd24a4-9e74-45cd-ae9c-8efc0e3b68e9","order_by":3,"name":"Sergio Savaresi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Politecnico di Milano","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sergio","middleName":"","lastName":"Savaresi","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-02-28 13:53:13","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6129136/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6129136/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-17607-9","type":"published","date":"2025-09-25T15:56:51+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":92430407,"identity":"1deb55f9-82e8-4403-a54c-68297ae9e8f0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-29 16:00:44","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":3744128,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"AutonomousMobilityonDemandincities.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6129136/v1_covered_06d58a65-a023-4203-a987-7f467e252dc1.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Autonomous Mobility on Demand in cities: addressing the minimum fleet problem for an autonomous car sharing service based on massive real trip data","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6129136/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6129136/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eRapid urbanization has led to escalating traffic congestion, vehicle density, and environmental degradation. 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