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Red-yellow-green-white: according to researchers from the University of North Carolina these are going to be the colors in our traffic lights.
In the (not too distant) future when autonomous vehicles will rule the road, traffic lights may have a fourth light - a white light, intended for the benefit of these vehicles.
The scientific website iflscience reported that the researchers propose an additional "white light" in the traffic light that will signal to drivers that autonomous vehicles (AV) are at the nearest intersection and this will result in the flow of traffic in a smarter way.
The idea is to reduce traffic congestion and lower overall fuel consumption.
The autonomous cars and trucks will not have to "look" at the white light, because they will communicate with it wirelessly.
However, the light will be a signal to human drivers that they must allow the vehicles at the intersection to control the next steps.
Not confusing enough?
Soon a new light at the traffic light: the white light (Photo: ShutterStock, Alexey_Erofejchev)
New simulations suggest that the fourth light, which will likely be white, will help human drivers gain a better understanding of what's happening on the road — while helping autonomous vehicles control the flow of traffic, saving time and fuel.
"This concept we propose for a traffic intersection, which we call a 'white phase,' concerns the computing power of autonomous vehicles (AVs) themselves," says Ali Hajabai, author of the article, in a statement, "The 'white phase' concept also incorporates signaling New traffic, so human drivers know what they're supposed to do. The red light still means stop. The green light still means go, and white lights will tell human drivers to just follow the car in front of them."
Bottom line, the autonomous vehicles will have full control of the intersection every time the white light appears.
Autonomous vehicles will be able to communicate with each other, accurately determine their position and their next move in relation to themselves and enable faster flow on the road.
If enough autonomous vehicles approach the intersection, they will adjust the best traffic flow and the white light will signal us to follow their plan by following the car in front.
If there are no autonomous vehicles in the vicinity, the red-yellow-green lights will control traffic as usual.
The researchers also emphasize that it does not necessarily have to be white light, but the color should be internationally agreed upon.
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To the full article
When the subject was tested in a small simulation and using computer models, the white light sped up traffic by a small but significant amount when autonomous vehicles made up between 10 and 30 percent of all cars.
At 30 percent, delays were reduced by 10.7 percent, but as the number of autonomous cars increased, so did the speed of traffic.
This would make it possible to speed up traffic lights dramatically, as autonomous cars would be able to estimate the best course of action compared to a simple timed stop-start system.
However, while the simulations suggest that the white light will be well received, actual drivers may not enjoy the added complexity of such a ubiquitous system.
The researchers acknowledge that a new system will be difficult to implement soon, but they think pilot trials should be given a chance.
"There are various elements of the 'white phase' concept that can be adopted with only minor changes both at intersections and at existing AVs. We also think there are opportunities to test drive this approach in specific locations," says Hajababi, "For example, the ports see high volumes of traffic Commercial vehicles, for whom traffic flow is particularly important. Commercial vehicles seem to have higher rates of adoption of autonomous vehicles, so there could be an opportunity to implement a pilot project in that environment - which could benefit port traffic and commercial transport."
The research was published in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
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