Researchers: AI in connected cars eased rush hour congestion

Specially equipped cars sit in a parking lot Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. In a study, the cars' cruise control was modified to react to the overall flow of traffic using artificial intelligence. The aim is to influence a phenomenon called a phantom traffic jam the start-and-stop congestion on crowded roads that has no obvious cause.

The professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University is one of a group of engineers and mathematicians from universities around the U.S. who have been studying the problem of phantom traffic jams after a simple experiment in Japan a dozen years ago showed how they develop. Researchers there put about 20 human drivers on a circular track and asked them to drive at a constant speed. Before long, traffic went from a smooth flow to a series of stops and starts.

They also took advantage of the adaptive cruise control that is already an option on many new vehicles. This technology lets the driver set a car to cruise at a certain speed, but the car automatically slows down and speeds up as needed to keep a safe distance from the car in front. In the experiment, the adaptive cruise control was modified to react to the overall traffic flow — including what was happening far ahead — using artificial intelligence.

Liam Pedersen is deputy general manager for research at Nissan, a CIRCLES consortium partner who was in Nashville last week for the experiment. He said one of the exciting things about it is that it builds on technology that is already in many new cars.Asked if automakers will be willing to cooperate to ease traffic, Pedersen said, “I certainly hope so, because the system works best when lots and lots of cars participate.

Source: Car News Wire (carnewswire.net)

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