The traffic lights of the future could have four colors to facilitate traffic in the presence of self-driving vehicles: in addition to red, yellow and green, the fourth color (for example white) could tell real-life motorists to do that what the car in front of them is doing, because traffic at the intersection is momentarily controlled by the self-driving vehicles themselves that are crossing it. This distributed computing strategy would make it possible to reduce travel times and consumption, as demonstrated by computer simulations carried out by researchers at North Carolina State University and published in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Researchers first introduced the ‘white phase’ concept in 2020, but that initial concept relied on a centralized computing approach, with a computer controlling the traffic light based on inputs received from approaching autonomous vehicles. Now “we have improved this concept” by focusing on distributed computing, i.e. “effectively using the computing resources of all autonomous vehicles to dictate the flow of traffic,” says Ali Hajbabaie, one of the authors of the work. “This system is more efficient and less likely to fall victim to communication errors. For example, if there is an interruption or delay in communication with the semaphore, the distributed computing approach would still be able to handle the traffic flow smoothly”. Giving some traffic control to autonomous vehicles “is a relatively new idea, called a mobile control paradigm,” continues the expert. “It can be used to coordinate traffic in any scenario involving autonomous vehicles. However we think it is important to incorporate the concept of white light at intersections because it tells human drivers what is going on so they know what they should do as they approach the crossroads. And, just to be clear, the color of the ‘white light’ doesn’t matter. What matters is that there is a signal clearly identifiable by motorists”.
Source: Ansa
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