Vehicular platooning is a well-known transportation technique that helps reduce fuel consumption, carbon emissions, and road congestion. When integrated with Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technologies, platooning enhances the overall safety and efficiency of the transportation system. This article presents Platooning as a Service (PlaaS) platform, a decision-support framework to promote sustainable transportation through platooning. We have formulated this problem as a Stackelberg game, with the platoon service provider (PSP) as the leader and the service users as the followers. The PSP sets the pricing policy, and the follower responds by choosing the distance to be travelled with the platoon. The optimal service contract between the PSP and the follower vehicle is established with the Stackelberg equilibrium, which is derived using Karush-Kuhn-Tucker optimality conditions. Additionally, we have examined the impact of government subsidies on the PlaaS platform in reducing carbon emissions. Our model has been applied to a specific example problem to illustrate the benefits for both players. We have also derived managerial insights through sensitivity analysis, exploring the effect of different velocity levels, vehicle dimensions, government subsidies, and operational urgency on the utilities of the players and CO2 emissions. Our analysis shows that PSP gains a higher profit from high delay-cost vehicles performing time-critical operations with higher platoon velocity. However, the benefits related to fuel consumption are only realized at moderate platoon velocities.

翻译：车辆编队是一种众所周知的交通技术，有助于降低燃油消耗、减少碳排放并缓解道路拥堵。当与网联自动驾驶车辆（CAV）技术结合时，编队能进一步提升交通系统的整体安全性与效率。本文提出编队即服务（PlaaS）平台，这是一个通过编队促进可持续交通的决策支持框架。我们将该问题建模为斯塔克尔伯格博弈，其中编队服务提供商（PSP）作为领导者，服务用户作为跟随者。PSP制定定价策略，跟随者则通过选择随编队行驶的距离来响应。PSP与跟随车辆之间的最优服务契约通过斯塔克尔伯格均衡建立，该均衡利用Karush-Kuhn-Tucker最优性条件推导得出。此外，我们研究了政府补贴对PlaaS平台在减少碳排放方面的影响。我们的模型已应用于一个具体示例问题，以阐明双方参与者的收益。通过敏感性分析，我们还获得了管理启示，探讨了不同速度水平、车辆尺寸、政府补贴及运营紧迫性对参与者效用和二氧化碳排放的影响。分析表明，PSP从执行时间关键操作且具有较高编队速度的高延迟成本车辆中获得更高利润。然而，燃油消耗相关的效益仅在中等编队速度下才能实现。