Audi’s 25th Hour Flow Research shows more smart cars on the road will decrease traffic, but it won’t be enough to solve the issue of congested roads. A look at how smart cars can improve traffic flow. (Photo via Audi)
At the end of a long day, you’re ready to go home and binge watch some shows on Netflix, work on your classic car, stare at a wall, do whatever blows your hair back. But before that, you have to deal with rush hour traffic. It’s a nightmare. Congested roads are an issue just about everywhere, and it seems like one of those things we’ll always have to deal with. Fortunately, smart cars are supposed to address the issue. Since the autonomous cars are better drivers, there should be less gridlock. Sadly, this isn’t necessarily the case according to automaker Audi’s research.
Audi recently shared its latest 25th Hour Flow Research at their Charged event, where they also unveiled the E-Tron. Their study, which looked at traffic flow in Ingolstadt, Germany, home of its headquarters, showed that a city with 100 percent autonomous cars on the road will reduce commute times by a third. It sounds great, but the reality is this future where all cars on the road can drive themselves is far away. Audi’s researchers believe that it’ll take a lot more than just self-driving cars to address traffic issues.
A step towards reducing traffic times is increasing occupancy rates in cars. Audi’s research shows that a rise in person per vehicle from 1.1 to 1.3 would decrease commute times by 12 percent. This means people have to be willing to take part in carpools or take public transportation. The automaker believes less congested roads will allow cities to use the space once occupied by cars - for bikers and pedestrians or even building parks and other greens areas to the road. It calls this scenario balance.
It’s important to note Audi’s concerns, and they’re probably right about smart cars not being the answer. But can AI address traffic issues in another way? Various cities around the US are turning to smart traffic control systems to address road congestion. The system works by learning traffic patterns via machine learning to figure out where the congested routes start and end. It then adjusts the signal timing of traffic lights based on its research. The system can also be hooked up to cameras at intersections to show when an accident occurs and what’s happening as emergency vehicles rush to the incident. Dallas recently signed a deal to install and hose an intelligent traffic system to deal with congestion. San Jose is looking into the same technology. There’s also hope these systems will communicating with smart cars in the future.
These systems sound promising, but it’ll be a while before they’re rolled out nationwide. Relying on AI brings up the sticky issues of privacy and cyber security. Plus, there’s the cost. It’s pretty expensive to install these systems. We can hope AI will fix our traffic woes, but for now, it may be best to do our part and take the bus every now and then.
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