With autonomous vehicles creeping increasingly close (and fast) to the market, there’s a possibility that traffic lights could see their numbers reduced or gone, even. In its place, will be “slot-based intersections.” Leading this revolutionary idea is MIT’s Senseable City Lab, The Boston Globe reports.
Rather than having to wait for the green light, these intersections will see self-driving cars adjusting the speed at an intersection at just the right time. “When sensor-laden vehicles approach an intersection, they can communicate their presence and remain at a safe distance from each other, rather than grinding to a halt at traffic lights,” Carlo Retti, director of Senseable City Lab said.
The benefits that such a system brings, according to Ratti, is a “a system that is much more efficient” compared to traditional traffic lights. In the video, the system claims to achieve a reduction in emissions and an increased throughput, and not to mention extremely smooth traffic flow from the looks of it.
That said, to have such a system would require a few key elements and obviously, the first would be self-driving cars. The second is a stable internet connection, which will allow the syncing of data from each car. Thomas Van Woensel, a professor of transport and logistics at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands added that a central system which organises traffic flow is also required.
“You’ll need centralised decision-making that organises flows and intersections. Car-to-car sharing of information is extremely local, while I think global information about the network itself is also extremely important,” the professor explained, likening it to air-traffic control for roads.
Meanwhile, it’s believed that such a system may soon be a reality, according to Ratti and Van Woensel. It’s understood that Senseable City Lab has been working together with the Committee on Autonomous Road Transport in Singapore to test out the transportation possibilities that self-driving vehicles can bring about.
Van Woesel believes that systems such as slot-based intersections will be on the rise. Part of this belief is attributed to the fact that some cities are mulling over reducing road signage as it’s growingly becoming inessential, since most drivers are increasingly navigating via GPS.
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Malaysia? 60 yrs from now la..
We just love dinosaur technology
Need to remove all the wires and wajas from the road. And m/cyclists as well
This is scary
Pedestrian nk lintas jalan cmne weh?
Boleh suka2 hati melintas ek sbb kete ada autonomous braking?
Ko rasa mereka yg design ni budak2 abis spm atau engineer yg ada pengalaman hidup?
Pernah jumpe jejantas tak? ke baru keluar dari gua?
Better be hacker proof else could be used for terrorism
nothing can be hacker proof when it comes to wired stuff. it’s just a ticking time bomb for me.
Here the vivas and the myvis will over take you from left when ever there is a slice of space, regardless the law and traffic light.
malaysian drivers mentality is dinosaur age one, no use here. enough said. nothing can be done. next.
But here in Malaysia they are adding more and more fricking annoying traffic lights! For less traffic areas, a simple u-turn or round-about will do.
Have you ever feel so stupid waiting at the traffic lights at a deserted road at 1 am in the morning?
our road contractors should start initiate any new projects for road junctions like cheras underground tunnel which was previously a roundabout. JKR should emphasize 3 tier roads levels (underground level, approaching road level and overpass single or two span bridge) and while they are at it, they should relocate once and for all the utitlities and built into the underground tunnel to prevent any further relocation in the event got widening or upgrading of roads.