Simulation: A Robotic Car Intersection of the Future
Posted on March 22, 2012
Here is a simulation of a intersection that is perhaps not too far off in our future full of robot driven vehicles. The computer simulation, by Peter Stone, a computer scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, shows robot driven cars appearing to drive carelessly and haphazardly across an intersection, yet there are no accidents. There are no traffic lights and there is very little stopping because the robot cars are all communicating with each other perfectly to maximize efficiency.
Stone told CityLab that the intersections for robot driven vehicles will also have an intersection manager: "an autonomous agent directing traffic at a much finer-grain scale than just a red light for one direction and a green light for another direction." Take a look: