Modular Autonomous Transit: From Vehicle Modularity to Deployment-Ready Transit Operations
Abstract
Audience: Tech companies such as NExT leadership; public transport operators; autonomous transit developers; charging partners; public authorities, and industrial partners considering pilots. Content: The strongest aspect of Modular Autonomous Vehicles (MAVs) is not only that vehicles can physically couple. A MAV is composed of Modular Autonomous Units (MAUs), and modularity creates operating advantages across line-level operations, intermodal services, network-level operations, stochastic real-time control, and electrified vehicle operations and charging infrastructure. Research basis and disclaimer: The brief summarizes scientific findings of four studies conducted by Dr. Xia and Dr. Sharif Azadeh on modular transit operations, including a charging infrastructure study using technical data associated with NExT MAUs.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.11232,
title = {Modular Autonomous Transit: From Vehicle Modularity to Deployment-Ready Transit Operations},
author = {Dongyang Xia and Shadi Sharif Azadeh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.11232},
year = {2026}
}