Application of Autonomous Transportation Systems: Detection of a Potential Sub-Leasing Type of Carsharing

Abstract

Carsharing is regarded as an efficient way to reduce parking difficulty and road congestion, and the sub-leasing type of round-trip carsharing is an innovative way to enhance the efficiency of carsharing. Meanwhile, with the help of sub-leasing, the turnover rate of a parking lot increases, and the parking operator can earn a certain profit when the parking lot acts as a sub-leasing station. This study aims at extending the application of sub-leasing carsharing by suggesting an integrated framework of parking and sub-leasing based on the concept of autonomous transportation systems (ATSs), which are believed to be able to correctly sense demand, give proper reactions, and reduce operator workloads. A detection approach based on this ATS-based integrated framework is proposed to identify potential sub-leasing customers from the parking users, which is the main contribution of this study. Furthermore, this detection approach was tested using Shenyang parking data, and the parking lots with the greatest potential were analyzed in detail. The results show that 48.4% of parking activities had the potential to be transformed into sub-leasing activities. Of these potential activities, 52.7% were made by people who used a monthly payment scheme, and the promotion of sub-leasing should focus on these people.