A small number of self-organizing autonomous vehicles significantly
increases traffic flow

Date:
September 1, 2020
Source:
Bar-Ilan University
Summary:
With the addition of just a small number of autonomous vehicles
(AVs) on the road, traffic flow can become faster, greener, and
safer in the near future. Researchers present a simple set of
guidelines and regulations for achieving the self-organization
of AVs into constellations that dynamically control the entire
traffic flow even when fewer than 5 percent of the vehicles on
the road are autonomous.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
With the addition of just a small number of autonomous vehicles (AVs)
on the road, traffic flow can become faster, greener, and safer in the
near future, a new study suggests.


==========================================================================
The study, published in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and
Theoretical, focused on the anticipated hybrid traffic flow of the future, which will combine traditional, human-operated vehicles with a small
fraction of AVs. This scenario raises several questions as to whether
traffic flow would actually improve and, if so, how many AVs would be
required to produce significant change.

It may seem that a large number of AVs is required for a significant
impact on traffic flow, especially on multilane freeways, as human
drivers can simply ignore and bypass AVs. But this isn't necessarily
so. In their research, Dr.

Amir Goldental and Prof. Ido Kanter, from the Department of Physics at
Bar-Ilan University, present a simple set of guidelines and regulations
for achieving the self-organization of AVs into constellations that
dynamically control the entire traffic flow.

The researchers suggest guidelines for efficient regulations, such
that AVs can cooperate and significantly enhance traffic flow even when
fewer than 5% of the vehicles on the road are autonomous, as seen in the accompanying video and image. In their article, the researchers describe
how AVs should behave on a freeway in order to self-organize into groups
that split the traffic flow into controllable clusters. It was observed
that it takes less than two minutes to achieve self-organized high-speed, greener and safer traffic flow when starting from congested traffic.

"Without regulations on AVs, we face a classic example of game theory
paradox, such as the prisoner's dilemma, where each vehicle tries
to optimize its driving speed but the overall traffic flow is not
optimal. In our research we examine how, with proper regulations, a very
small number of AVs can improve the overall traffic flow significantly,
through cooperation," says Dr.

Goldental.

Quantitatively, the authors report a substantial increase of up to 40% in traffic flow speed with up to a 28% decrease in fuel consumption. Also,
traffic safety is enhanced as traffic becomes more ordered and fewer
lane transitions occur. The study shows that these improvements can
be achieved without a central agent that governs AVs and without
communication between AVs using current infrastructure.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Bar-Ilan_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Amir Goldental, Ido Kanter. A minority of self-organizing autonomous
vehicles significantly increase freeway traffic flow. Journal
of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 2020; DOI:
10.1088/1751-8121/abb1e1 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200901112210.htm

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