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The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, programmed a small fleet of miniature robotic cars to drive on a multi-lane track and observed how the traffic flow changed when one of the cars stopped.
When the cars were not driving cooperatively, any cars behind the stopped car had to stop or slow down and wait for a gap in the traffic, as would typically happen on a real road. A queue quickly formed behind the stopped car and overall traffic flow was slowed.
However, when the cars were communicating with each other and driving cooperatively, as soon as one car stopped in the inner lane, it sent a signal to all the other cars. Cars in the outer lane that were in immediate proximity of the stopped car slowed down slightly so that cars in the inner lane were able to quickly pass the stopped car without having to stop or slow down significantly.
Additionally, when a human-controlled driver was put on the 'road' with the autonomous cars and moved around the track in an aggressive manner, the other cars were able to give way to avoid the aggressive driver, improving safety.
The results, to be presented today at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Montréal, will be useful for studying how autonomous cars can communicate with each other, and with cars controlled by human drivers, on real roads in the future.
Sources:
- https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/driverless-cars-working-together-can-speed-up-traffic-by-35-percent
- https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-48326428
- https://www.autofutures.tv/2019/05/20/miniature-cars/
- https://techerati.com/news-hub/driverless-car-fleet-can-reduce-traffic-by-at-least-35-percent-research-suggests/
[Editors Comment: The submitter is linked professionally to the last of the listed sources. Additional source material, including the original paper from Cambridge University as primary source, is also listed.]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday May 23 2019, @02:42PM
If we're essentially talking a giant autonomous taxi service anyway, what if we add a major additional change: almost all the cars are single-seaters that can lane-split to fit 2-4 of them in the same road-space as a normal car, depending on speed. If you need more space you can call a 2-seater, 4-seater, or cargo van, but the cheap ubiquitous option is little more than a chair in an weather shell. Park them packed in like sardines in any available nooks and crannies so there's always a few parked nearby. Sort of a hybrid of car-hailing and electric scooter rentals.
There's also another benefit to automation and the large-scale coordination it enables - far more seamless mass transit. You can take a local single-seater from your doorstep to the nearest high-speed bus going your way, knowing that another single-seater has already been booked and will be waiting for you when you reach your stop.