Design a system to efficiently manage fleet operations for a network of autonomous vehicles.

Worked answer

Available vehicles are 50+20=70, so instantaneous availability is 70/100=70%. Utilization among available vehicles is 50/70, approximately 71.4%. The fraction of the entire fleet serving trips is 50/100=50%; it uses a different denominator. None of these numbers shows demand satisfaction or long-term productive time.

The fleet service maintains versioned vehicle status, assignments, charging eligibility and maintenance restrictions. Dispatch checks freshness and atomically reserves an eligible vehicle so concurrent requests do not double-assign it. Failed or ambiguous acknowledgements need reconciliation, expiry and an explicit unavailable/unknown state rather than silent reassignment.

Scheduling may use optimization or learned forecasts, but simpler rules are useful baselines. Compare passenger waiting, cancellations, empty travel, energy and service constraints under realistic demand. Missing telemetry and communication outages need operational procedures; a cloud route suggestion does not bypass the onboard vehicle's evaluated capabilities or immediate driving decisions.

Maintenance and charging workflows require owners, acknowledgements and return-to-service checks. Monitor operational outcomes separately from safety evidence, and do not treat increasing utilization as automatically desirable when reserve capacity or maintenance is required.