UGH! Stuck at ANOTHER red light!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Don’t you just HATE stop-and-go traffic? It’s not only frustrating, it increases fuel use and emissions! That’s a lose-LOSE! Could SELF-DRIVING vehicles offer a solution?
Enter Vindula Jayawardana and Cathy Wu from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They decided to design and test their own navigation method for self-driving… Using computer simulations!
In their method, self-driving vehicles can be taught to MINIMIZE stops at red lights. To make this work, traffic lights and self-driving cars would have sensors. This would let them check in with each other about their surroundings to keep traffic smooth.
And? If all cars are self-driving, the researchers’ simulation predicts a TWENTY-FIVE percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Plus, travel SPEEDS could increase by TWENTY percent!
Their eco-friendlier navigation strategy for self-driving vehicles reduces fuel usage AND travel time. Instead of seeing red, with their method we can SEE GREEN much more often!
Say helloooo to my lean- GREEN- driving machine!
Reference: Jayawardana, V., & Wu, C. (2022). Learning Eco-Driving Strategies at Signalized Intersections. arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.12561.