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Autonomous Intersection Management: Traffic Control for the Future

csatc2002 · Youtube · 6 HN comments
HN Theater has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention csatc2002's video "Autonomous Intersection Management: Traffic Control for the Future".
Youtube Summary
Autonomous Intersection Management (AIM) is a new intersection control protocol that exploits autonomous vehicles' extraordinary capabilities of control, sensing, and communication to make traffic management at intersections much more efficient than traditional control mechanisms such as traffic signals and stop signs. This video illustrates the principle behind this new traffic control protocol and demonstrates its potential using Marvin, the autonomous vehicle developed at the University of Texas at Austin.
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> I can't help but think about how much this would alleviate traffic congestion

Especially given that I do not see how self driving cars could decrease traffic congestion problems. A self driving car takes as much space as a "regular car", so only ways I can imagine autonomous cars reducing traffic are:

1. People ride less with cars. 2. People share rides more. 3. Autonomous cars are significantly more efficient finding free parking spaces, so they reduce the amount of cars looking for a free parking spot. 4. They do not need to be parked, so parking space is given to moving cars (and this actually helps, not increases, congestion). 5. Autonomous cars can drive in less space and/or are smaller.

Of course, any of these claims being wrong attribute to increased congestion due to autonomous cars. And to be honest, I find it unlikely that any of those claims would be correct in the sense that it would materially reduce the congestion problems.

(Well, maybe one more option came to my mind that might actually help. If the autonomous cars would be able to increase the capacity of crossroads by somehow communicating with each others like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbAI40dK0A )

lern_too_spel
Most trips during high traffic are single passenger. Self-driving taxi services will right-size the vehicles for the task, which will reduce congestion some amount, and the vehicles themselves will drive in a more uniform fashion than humans, which will alleviate traffic waves and congestion due to accidents.
beefield
I have difficulties seeing people who now drive 5 series BMW to change to self-driving Renault Twizy[1] just because a self-driving taxi service decides the it is big enough.

And there is a limit how far uniform driving helps. If the capacity is full, it is full.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twizy

lern_too_spel
Why? The experience of not driving or looking for parking at all and doing absolutely anything else while you are transported is significantly better than driving a BMW. That's why the really rich people have chauffeurs. There will likely be taxi services that cater to the elite with better interiors, just like there are private plane services that cater to them. The vast majority of people driving mere 5-series BMWs will be happier with merely slightly upscale right-sized taxi services.
beefield
Because they can also change to a self driving 5 series BMW instead of Twizy. If they now pay the premium, why not with self driving cars?
lern_too_spel
They will then have to find a place to park the car, handle maintenance, etc. The cost premium of offering luxury vs. no luxury is in line with the cost premium of owning a 5 series vs. owning a Toyota. The premium of owning a car vs. not owning a car is not.
chris_7
> (Well, maybe one more option came to my mind that might actually help. If the autonomous cars would be able to increase the capacity of crossroads by somehow communicating with each others like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbAI40dK0A )

How do cyclists and people walking handle that type of intersection?

beefield
Good point. Maybe bridges?
With good AI anything is possible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbAI40dK0A see the simulation at 0:55.
mholmes680
oh wow, nice reference. but, then you have a car thief use case, and it screws the whole thing up! :)
Jun 27, 2016 · coryfklein on New Cities
> Self-driving cars ... could change this equation by intelligently routing cars around bottlenecks and avoiding the neighborhood entirely

Self-driving cars can do even better than that - they can eliminate the "stopping" nature of the intersection entirely. If the self-driving cars are able to determine the position and speed of other cars approaching the intersection, you can just have the traffic streams pass right through each other. [1]

[1] Autonomous Intersection Management: Traffic Control for the Future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbAI40dK0A

It's very likely that once self-driving cars reach a certain penetration, we'll see continuous-flow intersections where no human driver would dare try and cross.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbAI40dK0A

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