Improving Viability of Electric Taxis by TaxiService Strategy Optimization
Improving Viability of Electric Taxis by TaxiService Strategy Optimization
Electrification of transportation is critical for alow-carbon society. In particular, public vehicles (e.g., taxis)provide a crucial opportunity for electrification. Despite thebenefits of eco-friendliness and energy efficiency, adoption ofelectric taxis faces several obstacles, including constrained drivingrange, long recharging duration, limited charging stations, andlow gas price, all of which impede taxi drivers’ decisions to switchto electric taxis. On the other hand, the popularity of ride-hailingmobile apps facilitates the computerization and optimizationof taxi service strategies, which can provide computer-assisteddecisions of navigation and roaming for taxi drivers to locatepotential customers. This paper examines the viability of electrictaxis with the assistance of taxi service strategy optimization,in comparison with conventional taxis with internal combustionengines. A big data study is provided using a large data set ofreal-world taxi trips in New York City (NYC). Our methodologyis to first model the computerized taxi service strategy by Markovdecision process, and then obtain the optimized taxi servicestrategy based on NYC taxi trip data set. The profitability ofelectric taxi drivers is studied empirically under various batterycapacity and charging conditions. Consequently, https://srisivasakthitravels.com/
taxis are an important part of public transportationsystem, offering both flexibility of private vehicles andshareability of public transportation. In many cities aroundthe world, there are usually a large of number of taxis,serving the ad hoc demands of commuters. Notably, taxisconsume a large amount of fuel. For example, there areover 13,000 taxis operating in New York City, which totallytravel over 1.46 billion kilometers each year,1and con-sume over 86 million liters of gasoline. As a result, theyemit over 242,900 metric tons of CO2per year,2which isequivalent to the amount of around 25,650 US households’average annual CO2emissions.3A viable path toward alow-carbon sustainable society is to promote electrificationof transportation, replacing internal combustion engine (ICE)vehicles by more environment-friendly and energy-efficientelectric vehicles (EVs). Electrification of private vehicles facesmany obstacles, such as cost-effectiveness, availability ofhome charging infrastructure and users’ perception. However,electrification of public vehicles(e.g., buses, taxis) would besubject to fewer concerns, with even a greater potential impactthan that of private vehicles.First, public vehicles are usedmore frequently, whose electrification can effectively reducegreenhouse gas emissions. Second, public vehicles are likelyto park in common facilities, facilitating the installation ofcharging stations. Third, public vehicles generally have shorterlife cycles due to frequent usage, and hence, are more readyto be replaced
Electrification of transportation is critical for alow-carbon society. In particular, public vehicles (e.g., taxis)provide a crucial opportunity for electrification. Despite thebenefits of eco-friendliness and energy efficiency, adoption ofelectric taxis faces several obstacles, including constrained drivingrange, long recharging duration, limited charging stations, andlow gas price, all of which impede taxi drivers’ decisions to switchto electric taxis. On the other hand, the popularity of ride-hailingmobile apps facilitates the computerization and optimizationof taxi service strategies, which can provide computer-assisteddecisions of navigation and roaming for taxi drivers to locatepotential customers. This paper examines the viability of electrictaxis with the assistance of taxi service strategy optimization,in comparison with conventional taxis with internal combustionengines. A big data study is provided using a large data set ofreal-world taxi trips in New York City (NYC). Our methodologyis to first model the computerized taxi service strategy by Markovdecision process, and then obtain the optimized taxi servicestrategy based on NYC taxi trip data set. The profitability ofelectric taxi drivers is studied empirically under various batterycapacity and charging conditions. Consequently, https://srisivasakthitravels.com/
taxis are an important part of public transportationsystem, offering both flexibility of private vehicles andshareability of public transportation. In many cities aroundthe world, there are usually a large of number of taxis,serving the ad hoc demands of commuters. Notably, taxisconsume a large amount of fuel. For example, there areover 13,000 taxis operating in New York City, which totallytravel over 1.46 billion kilometers each year,1and con-sume over 86 million liters of gasoline. As a result, theyemit over 242,900 metric tons of CO2per year,2which isequivalent to the amount of around 25,650 US households’average annual CO2emissions.3A viable path toward alow-carbon sustainable society is to promote electrificationof transportation, replacing internal combustion engine (ICE)vehicles by more environment-friendly and energy-efficientelectric vehicles (EVs). Electrification of private vehicles facesmany obstacles, such as cost-effectiveness, availability ofhome charging infrastructure and users’ perception. However,electrification of public vehicles(e.g., buses, taxis) would besubject to fewer concerns, with even a greater potential impactthan that of private vehicles.First, public vehicles are usedmore frequently, whose electrification can effectively reducegreenhouse gas emissions. Second, public vehicles are likelyto park in common facilities, facilitating the installation ofcharging stations. Third, public vehicles generally have shorterlife cycles due to frequent usage, and hence, are more readyto be replaced
Major cities worldwide are introducing plans to phaseout conventional ICE public vehicles for electric vehicles.For example, Chinese government has initiated several pro-grams to promote electrification of public vehicles for airpollution mitigation [3]. Electric taxi programs were launchedin Shenzhen (in 2010) and Beijing (in 2014) to convert taxisto electric vehicles, along with the installation of sufficientEV parking lots and fast charging points. In these programs,the government also offer subsidies to taxi operators. Singa-pore government plans to roll out a total of 1,000 electric carsto be supported by 2,000 charging points across the city by2020.Nonetheless, unlike buses, taxis are often operated as privatebusinesses. Adoption of electric taxis critically depends onthe willingness of taxi drivers to switch to electric taxis fromconventional ICE taxis. However, it is not clear whether taxidrivers are willing to do so. Despite the initiatives from thegovernments, there are notable shortcomings of electric taxis:1)Constrained Driving Range: One of the barriers pre-venting wide adoptions of EVs is a shorter drivingrange. With increasing battery capacity, the drivingrange has been extended to more than 200 kilometersin production EVs such as Chevrolet Bolt. Generally,the driving ranges of production EVs are sufficient fordaily commutes of personal purposes. However, a longerdriving range is normally required by logistic vehiclesand taxis (e.g., more than 300 kilometers). The drivingrange of high-end Tesla (as in 2017) may suffice tomeet the required driving distance, but are too costlyfor practical taxis.2)Long Recharging Duration: Recharging the battery ofEVs can take considerable time. For example, chargingNissan Leaf with 30 kwh battery capacity can take upto 4 hours using mode 3 charging, or half an hour usingfast DC charging (without considering queuing delay).Taxis traveling long distances are likely to take morethan an hour for recharging between shifts, which issignificantly longer than ICE taxis with faster refillingof gasoline.3)Limited Charging Stations: Todays, the number ofcharging stations are few. Also, some of charging sta-tions are reserved for specific models or brands withproprietary connectors. The expansion of charging sta-tions is hampered by electrical infrastructure in certainregions. As a result, electric taxi drivers always needsufficient reserve battery capacity in order to be ableto return to certain known charging stations, in case ofemergence.4)Low Gas Price: Nowadays, the oil price has comedown considerably from historic heights. This reducesthe incentive to adopt EVs, as the gasoline is rela-tively affordable, despite cheaper and cleaner electricitysources. Unless carbon tax is introduced to mitigategreenhouse gas
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