Weight, computing load, sensor load and possibly higher drag may increase the energy use of automated electric vehicles relative to human-driven electric vehicles, although this increase may be offset by smoother driving. Here, we use a vehicle dynamics model to evaluate the trade-off between automation and electric vehicle range and battery longevity. We find that automation will likely reduce electric vehicle range by 5–10% for suburban driving and by 10–15% for city driving. The effect on range is strongly influenced by sensor drag for suburban driving and computing loads for city driving. The impact of automation on battery longevity is negligible. While some commentators have suggested that the power and energy requirements of automation mean that the first automated vehicles will be gas–electric hybrids, our results suggest that this need not be the case if automakers can implement energy-efficient computing and aerodynamic sensor stacks.

重量，计算负载，传感器负载以及可能更高的阻力可能会增加自动电动汽车相对于人为驾驶的电动汽车的能源使用，尽管这种增加可以通过更平稳的驾驶来抵消。在这里，我们使用车辆动力学模型来评估自动化与电动汽车续驶里程和电池寿命之间的权衡。我们发现，对于郊区驾驶而言，自动化可能会将电动汽车的行驶里程减少5–10％，对于城市驾驶而言，电动汽车的行驶里程将会减少10–15％。对距离的影响在很大程度上受到郊区行驶的传感器阻力和城市行驶的计算负荷的影响。自动化对电池寿命的影响可以忽略不计。尽管一些评论员认为，自动化的动力和能量需求意味着首批自动驾驶汽车将是气电混合动力车，