This paper proposes an efficient computational framework for longitudinal\nvelocity control of a large number of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and develops a\ntraffic flow theory for AVs. Instead of hypothesizing explicitly how AVs drive,\nour goal is to design future AVs as rational, utility-optimizing agents that\ncontinuously select optimal velocity over a period of planning horizon. With a\nlarge number of interacting AVs, this design problem can become computationally\nintractable. This paper aims to tackle such …