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Traffic Studied Using Computer-Linked Cars
mprindle writes "Yahoo News has an AP article about a system that links individual cars to analyze traffic patterns, which allows the drivers to avoid traffic jams and accidents. This system is part of the 'smart highway' initiatives. The data from the car is sent to a central server and from that data traffic patterns in a 40 mile radius. According to the article this technology is less expensive than using poll mounted antennas or ground sensors."
But how long until we can get some level of computer-controlled vehicles? Once the technology has matured a bit, I'd MUCH rather trust a reasonably engineered computerized system than the thousands of other drivers around me on my way about town. Not that I shouldn't be able to turn it off, but I think the concept would really grow once we switched the carpool lane to the auto-drive lane, and manual drivers learn to stay clear of the 80+mph traffic that flows on it.
Ryan Fenton
How long until insurance companies synchronize some of those devices they are testing that memorize your driving habits to some kind of wireless network? Although big brother would be watching, insurance monies would go to your pocket via safe driver discounts and analysis of vehicles' behavior right before accidents.
All your Sybase are belong to us.
But what if your car is stopped in the breakdown lane because of a flat tire or something? If you are the only wired car (from the relatively small pool) on that road at that time, will the system simply think that the road is at a standstill and tell everybody else to avoid that particular road?
It's funny how we spend so much time on alleviating traffic concerns, when it would be simpler to just abandon the car. It's to the point where it's often twice as fast and cheap to use public transport. When I'm in a large city, I park my car at a terminal, hop the train, and go. Not only do I not have to worry about traffic and the associated stress, I also buy back all the time I'd waste behind the wheel to catch up on reading and paperwork. And while using public transport can sometimes mean walking a block or two, it's no worse than finding a parking spot. Really, why, in North America, are we so fixated on the automobile for personal transport?
Be relentless!
No mention of the cell tracking method someone demo'ed a couple years ago? It used data from cell towers to monitor anonymized speed data for cell phones for a certain service, as measured by 2d direction finding the various towers could perform on a phone based on signal strength.
The method, while it generated controversy on slashdot for the possible privacy implications, was a viable and cheap method to get this same data without adding specific new hardware.
I don't think it would be a problem. I think it would help. Kansas City's Scout System provides simple info on some routes (big accident at X and Y, avoid) so that people can avoid it, and it does help. Plus because the message is on many signs (instead of right before the problem) you can avoid the problem from 1 mile away or 20.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Some of the previous post write this type of tech off without considering it could be used as one part of the solution. The only way to improve traffic is a system that effectively intergrates several options. One option, let's say mass transit, cannot do it alone.
Imagin if you could tie this system into traffic signals. The combination of routing a certain set of vehicles to alternate routes along with changing the timing of lights on several routes could ease congestion in many cases. Most of the gridlock I see is not caused my a major accident but small incidents. Add an effecient system that deals with moving hazards off the road quickly,something like what they have on the autobahn we probably see huge back ups reduced. There will always be some gridlock but that does not mean a system has failed.
Yeah, it sounds like a good idea now, but think about the privacy issues. If they can track where I am, where I'm going, and how fast, what's to stop a ticket for showing up in my mailbox everytime I go 1 mph over the speed limit? How long until some creep hacks the system and has access to everything he knows to stalk whoever he wants and do all kinds of no good? I don't want radio transmitters in my clothes, I don't want my cell phone to track me, and I don't want my car disclosing my personal information.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
Ummm, no it wouldn't speed up everyone's journey home. Those of us who already take back roads everywhere that are NOT congested will get more congested routes. It will only speed up the journey of those taking the routes that are congested over the average point.
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General Motors has been doing all sorts of experiments with cars that are driven by computer. They've shown some experiments on television where about eight or ten cars are driving eighty miles per hour on a road at "tailgating" distance from one another.
The idea is not that computers are better at driving than humans, but is a solution to the problem that the driver of each vehicle sees only those cars that are immediately around him on the road. This means that if the vehicle in front of him is stopped, he must stop, too. Imagine a stoplight at an intersection. The light turns green, but you're behind ten cars, so by the time you start going, the light turns yellow again. Why? This is happening because you can't go until the car immediately in front of you goes, and the driver of that car suffers from the same problem. What if all the drivers communicated, so that when the light turns green, everybody would push the gas at exactly the same time? And more specifically, if everybody pushed the gas exactly the right amount so as to accelerate at exactly the same rate? Many more cars would make it through the intersection before the light turns red. Also, we'd all get where we're going a lot faster. That is currently impossible because there is no "central command", no way to create an overall driving strategy for everyone on a given road. Everybody does what he believes is best, and this causes all sorts of bottlenecks that shouldn't otherwise exist.
A system that would essentially control all the vehicles on a road would do exactly that, and more. Now, I imagine that at first, this will only be available on a select few roads as an "experiment", and only people whose cars have the internal components to steer and control themselves at the instruction of external computers will be able to participate. I think the system would work by providing central control locations on a sort of grid, where each section of road has its own control system, and as cars leave one section of road and enter another, their information would be passed on to the next computer down the grid. Also, each vehicle would have to contain the additional sensors to "close the loop", essentially by providing an internal control inside the vehicle that would allow it to slow down or come to a stop in case there is something in the road that the central computer doesn't know about, or some other condition arises.
This system would have tremendous benefits:
It really isn't immaterial. Treating traffic flow as a fluid dynamics problem, it becomes apparent that reducing the flow of traffic will untangle traffic snarls, improving the flow. Basically, the more cars try to jam into a bottleneck, the slower traffic becomes, the slower it becomes, the worse the bottleneck becomes, untill traffic comes to a standstill with people still trying to jam themselves in. Sort of like early in rush hour, traffic flow is generally very heavy, but quick. Somebody having to hit their brakes, due to tailgating, being cut off, or not let into a lane causes small ripples of congestion which add up to the point that traffic flow comes to a standstill or at least a major slowdown. Appropriately reducing traffic flow at key points could eliminate or at least reduce congestion, without the costs (financial, social and environmental) of adding more lanes of concrete.
Although teaching people how to drive and to actually use lanes appropriately would probably do more than any technological gizmo that we could create at this point.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
Hmm... maybe we could eventually implement a system to allow for timeshifting traffic rather than spatial shifting. Reward people for driving in off peak hours (or rather penalize for driving in peak hours) such as higher tolls during rush hour in places that already have tolls. Reward companies that offer more flexible scheduling. Schedule semis/other large trucks to avoid rush hour traffic. Dynamic planning of delivery routes which incorporates traffic flow information. This would, however, take a lot more sociological engineering than a box that says "I recommend that you take a right at the next exit."
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
We still have massive congestion and the occasional 4 hour gridlock, but its better that it would be otherwise. Of course, if there were alternative routes to take when you had a warning of congestion, it would help!
The only real solution is for everyone to cycle, and so long as there is diesel oil or rape seed (Cannola) oil on the planet, I for one, won't get on a bike.
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We had that problem in Baldur's Gate. Solution? "Enhanced Pathfinding" in Baldur's Gate 2, makes the characters recompute their path every few steps. The only time youre ever committed to a path on the road is between exits on the interstate, and with proper information you should only get stuck behind those ~1% of the time that you do now.
the solution to that is have someone go around smack ing the brain dead PHB's in the head that think that employees MUST be at work at 8:00 am and leave at 5:00pm.
let workers swing their shift 1 hour or so from the max point. let me come in at 8:30 and leave at 5:30. or let me come in at 7:00 and leave at 4:00
too many managers think that being there exactly at 8:00am is important, in reality it is not and has not been that way for decades. Also giving employees the ability to telecommute 1 day a week will also help. many MANY people can effectively work at home one day a week.
until some sanity can be pounded into management we will continue the rat race that causes problems twice a day.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.