Avoiding Red Lights By Booking Ahead

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 18, 2012 @11:45AM from the might-get-bumped-if-they-overbook dept.

RedEaredSlider writes "Peter Stone, associate professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Austin, has presented an idea at the AAAS meeting today for managing intersections: a computer in a car calls ahead to the nearest intersection it is headed towards, and says it will arrive at a given time. The intersection checks to see if anyone else is arriving then, and if the slot is open, it tells the car to proceed. If it isn't, it tells the car that the car remains responsible for slowing down or stopping. He says that even with only a few connected cars, the system still works, even if the benefits are still only to those who have the connected vehicles."

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Re:What happens when people change their minds.. by macraig · 2012-02-18 11:54 · Score: 0, Offtopic

I dropped by to voice the same concern but you beat me to it. What indeed happens when one of the other monitored cars has an impulsive driver who decides in the last few seconds before the intersection to floor the accelerator?
Sorry... FAIL. This system will ONLY work if we remove humans as a variable in the equation.