Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) are emerging technologies expected to bring important environmental, social, and economic improvements in transportation systems. Given their implications in terms of air quality and sustainable and safer movement of goods, heavy‐duty trucks (HDTs), carrying the majority of U.S. freight, are considered an ideal domain for the application of CAV technology. An input–output (IO) model is developed based on the Eora database—a detailed IO database that consists of national IO tables, covering almost the entire global economy. Using the Eora‐based IO model, this study quantifies and assesses the environmental, economic, and social impacts of automated diesel and battery electric HDTs based on 20 macro‐level indicators. The life cycle sustainability performances of these HDTs are then compared to that of a conventional diesel HDT. The study finds an automated diesel HDT to cause 18% more fatalities than an automated electric HDT. The global warming potential (GWP) of automated diesel HDTs is estimated to be 4.7 thousand metric tons CO₂‐eq. higher than that of automated electric HDTs. The health impact costs resulting from an automated diesel HDT are two times higher than that of an automated electric HDT. Overall, the results also show that automation brings important improvements to the selected sustainability indicators of HDTs such as global warming potential, life cycle cost, GDP, decrease in import, and increase in income. The findings also show that there are significant trade‐offs particularly between mineral and fossil resource losses and environmental gains, which are likely to complicate decision‐making processes regarding the further development and commercialization of the technology.

中文翻译：

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自动驾驶重型卡车的生命周期可持续性评估

联网自动驾驶汽车（CAV）是新兴技术，有望为交通运输系统带来重要的环境，社会和经济改善。考虑到它们在空气质量以及货物的可持续和安全运输方面的影响，重型卡车（HDT）承载着美国大部分货物，被认为是应用CAV技术的理想领域。基于Eora数据库开发了一种输入输出（IO）模型，该数据库是一个详细的IO数据库，由国家IO表组成，几乎覆盖了整个全球经济。本研究使用基于Eora的IO模型，基于20个宏观指标，量化和评估了自动柴油和电池电动HDT的环境，经济和社会影响。然后将这些HDT的生命周期可持续性性能与常规柴油HDT进行比较。研究发现，与自动电动HDT相比，自动柴油HDT造成的死亡人数增加18％。估计自动柴油HDT的全球变暖潜能为4.7万吨CO₂ eq。高于自动化电动HDT。自动化柴油HDT产生的健康影响成本是自动化电动HDT的两倍。总体而言，结果还表明，自动化为HDT的选定可持续性指标带来了重要改进，例如全球变暖潜力，生命周期成本，GDP，进口减少和收入增加。研究结果还表明，尤其是在矿物和化石资源损失与环境收益之间存在重大折衷，这可能会使有关该技术的进一步开发和商业化的决策过程变得复杂。