Mapping our City Smart Cars

The advent of self-driving cars in both ride sharing and in production cars has allowed vehicles to observe the environment and automatically make decision based on algorithms running in real time. Today, there are already many cars are on the road that can collect positional data from the environment that guides semi or fully automated driving. These systems mainly provide utility to the driver, as it allows them to focus less on the repetitive mechanics of driving. However, this reduction in the responsibilities of the driver has little to no effect on the overall state of traffic within on roads. To actually improve traffic conditions, cars of the future will have to communicate with other cars and infrastructure throughout the city.

The video above details how a solution to traffic problems today would entail cars on the road communicating directly to one another to increase the amounts of cars that can through intersections. The main factor contributing to this speed up is that cars near each other can synchronize their rates of acceleration. This removes the cascading effect of humans lagging to accelerate as soon as the car in front of them does. Self-driving cars would provide more stable acceleration and breaking in comparison to human drivers and a result, emissions produced in a future with mostly self-driving cars would mean lower emissions overall. The same system of red, yellow and green traffic lights has been in use for nearly a century, and self-driving cars communicating with one another could user in roads that don’t require lights at all.

In addition to cars taking in information from the environment and other cars, they will be able to send information to smart city infrastructures. These cars would be able to send out real time traffic conditions to give citizens an up to date view of the traffic in their cities and in the surrounding neighborhoods. Another significant impact this communication could have is that It could also allow first responders to better map out and navigate the city in response to emergencies. A direct line of communication between cars and cities could even allow for routes to be changed in real time to prevent cars from taking dangerous roads. As smart cities containing millions will continue to form, traffic and congestion must be addressed and effective communication will only go to making cities easier to navigate for its citizens.

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