One smart car can calm stop-and-go jams on the road
Ever been trapped in a sudden jam with no crash ahead? Those are often stop-and-go waves, little traffic storms that move backward through cars.
New road tests on a circular track with about twenty vehicles show something surprising: by gently controlling the speed of a single autonomous vehicle the whole crowd of cars started to flow smoother, the waves nearly disappeared.
The smart car acted like a tiny traffic cop, it slowed or sped a bit and the ripple faded.
That small nudge helped dampen braking and made driving less stop-and-start.
Drivers used fewer brakes and the line uses less fuel, so you get better fuel economy without changing roads.
The exciting part — you don’t need many robot cars, only a few mobile actuators maybe under five percent of cars, could change how traffic behaves.
Imagine calmer commutes and less honking, soon small number of smart vehicles could make daily drives much smoother, maybe sooner than you think.
Read article comprehensive review in Paperium.net:
Dissipation of stop-and-go waves via control of autonomous vehicles: Fieldexperiments
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