Autonomous vehicles could hike fleet energy demands, FleetCheck warns

Autonomous vehicles could require significantly more energy than conventional EVs, potentially affecting range and charging requirements for fleets, according to FleetCheck.

The fleet software specialist pointed to a paper published in Nature which included modelling showing that prototype robotaxis used around 57% of their total power consumption for propulsion.

The remainder was used for onboard sensing and computing, communications, fleet management and offboard infrastructure including video storage and model retraining.

FleetCheck said the findings could have implications for fleet adoption of autonomous technology, particularly if higher energy consumption reduces vehicle range or requires more frequent charging.

Neil Avent, chief technology officer at FleetCheck, said: “We’re at the very beginning of fleet adoption of AVs and information about their operational capabilities is extremely limited at the moment.

“However, this paper does suggest there is a significant increase in power consumption from using AV technology, a factor that could play a part in their adoption by fleets.

“Reduced range and the necessity to schedule more frequent charging are key operational considerations. They could even be the difference between choosing to use an EV and staying with a conventional vehicle.”

While the research focused on robotaxis, which FleetCheck described as the most complex autonomous vehicle application so far trialled on public roads, Avent said the findings could have wider implications as autonomous technology develops.