Loss Function Design for Data-Driven Predictors to Enhance the Energy Efficiency of Connected and Automated Vehicles

In car-following scenarios, accurate previews of the preceding vehicle’s trajectory are essential for minimizing the energy consumption of a following automated vehicle. This work presents a novel design strategy for data-driven vehicle speed predictors to increase the energy efficiency of the following connected and automated vehicle. The loss function is formulated as a weighted-mean-squared error, where the weights are tuned based on the influence of uncertainty at an individual prediction step on the energy consumption of the automated following vehicle. The efficacy of the proposed loss function is validated by applying it to training representative predictors and testing the predictors in the energy-optimal control of the following vehicle. The energy saving of the optimal controller is evaluated by comparing the electricity consumption of a battery electric vehicle with the human driver following, emulated by an intelligent driver model. Simulation results show that the energy consumption of an electric vehicle is reduced by an average of 12% compared to a human driver following demonstrated by an intelligent driver model, whereas using a conventional loss function, a mean-squared error loss function, reduces by 10%.