With the introduction of connected and autonomous vehicles, the driving environment of highway will have a change. Connected vehicles can receive the dynamics of other vehicles and the real-time information of surrounding traffic condition. This information can help drivers to response quickly and accurately, and then improve traffic safety and mobility. While some current studies have explored the effect of connected and autonomous vehicles on highway traffic, most modeling methods can’t describe the connectivity and automation of vehicles. It’ s meaningful to model these two technologies respectively. This study utilizes different models to simulate different vehicles with different technology level. Then, fundamental diagram of the heterogeneous traffic flow was explored at different penetration rates of connected and autonomous vehicles, and the numerical simulations were conducted to scatter the fundamental diagram and traffic capacity. Moreover, the stability analysis of the mixed traffic flow with different market penetration rates was carried out. The results showed that connected and autonomous vehicles can improve traffic capacity as well as string stability. Moreover, automation is found to have a more significant impact on capacity and string stability than connectivity.

CICTP