VIDEO With autonomous vehicles creeping increasingly close (and fast) to the market, there’s a possibility that traffic lights could see their numbers reduced or gone, even. In its place, will be “slot-based intersections.” Leading this revolutionary idea is MIT’s Senseable City Lab, The Boston Globe reports. Rather than having to wait for the green light, these intersections will see self-driving cars adjusting the speed at an intersection at just the right time. “When sensor-laden vehicles approach an intersection, they can communicate their presence and remain at a safe distance from each other, rather than grinding to a halt at traffic lights,” Carlo Retti, director of Senseable City Lab said. The benefits that such a system brings, according to Ratti, is a “a system that is much more efficient” compared to traditional traffic lights. In the video, the system claims to achieve a reduction in emissions and an increased throughput, and not to mention extremely smooth traffic flow from the looks of it. That said, to have such a system would require a few key elements and obviously, the first would be self-driving cars. The second is a stable internet connection, which will allow the syncing of data from each car. Thomas Van Woensel, a professor of transport and logistics at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands added that a central system which organises traffic flow is also required. “You’ll need centralised decision-making that organises flows and intersections. Car-to-car sharing of information is extremely local, while I think global information about the network itself is also extremely important,” the professor explained, likening it to air-traffic control for roads. Meanwhile, it’s believed that such a system may soon be a reality, according to Ratti and Van Woensel. It’s understood that Senseable City Lab has been working together with the Committee on Autonomous Road Transport in Singapore to test out the transportation possibilities that self-driving vehicles can bring about. Van Woesel believes that systems such as slot-based intersections will be on the rise. Part of this belief is attributed to the fact that some cities are mulling over reducing road signage as it’s growingly becoming inessential, since most drivers are increasingly navigating via GPS.
An interesting video from MIT ’s Senseable City Lab questions whether traffic lights will still be necessary once vehicles become wholly autonomous , and finds that they will move much more efficiently if they are scrapped . According to the director of Senseable City Lab , Carlo Retti ; “ When sensor - laden vehicles approach an intersection , they will communicate their location and move at a safe distance from each other , rather than grinding to a halt at traffic lights . ”