Traffic light covering autonomous vehicles

“This concept is what we propose for a traffic intersection, which we call ‘white phase’, harnessing the computing power of autonomous vehicles”say the researchers.

wireless system will connect traffic lights and autonomous vehicles at intersections within a certain distance to more efficiently coordinate which car has more vehicles and, therefore, give those cars priority and advise on the most optimal speed for the intended road.

In computer simulations, it can be seen that autonomous vehicles increase traffic flow, especially when the white phase is introduced, which also has a positive effect on reducing fuel consumption.

“Giving control of traffic flow to AV is a relatively new idea, called cellular control paradigm. This could be used to coordinate traffic in any scenario involving autonomous vehicles.” “But we think it’s important to incorporate the concept of white lights at intersections because tell the human driver what happened, so they know what to do as they approach an intersection,” the authors wrote.

Reshaping the world’s traffic light infrastructure It will take time and money. but scientists believe that the idea of ​​a traffic light white phase can be implemented relatively easily.

As a curiosity, the first traffic light was designed by the English inventor John Peake Knight and installed in London (United Kingdom) in 1868.

Reference:

R. Niroumand, L. Hajibabai and A. Hajbabaie, “Control of White Phase Intersections Through Distributed Coordination: A Cellular Controller Paradigm in Mixed Traffic Flows,” in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, doi: 10.1109/TITS.2022.3226557.