In the News: driverless cars and digital intersections

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:27:57 -0500
in-the-news, news

The buzz about driverless cars erupted after Google received a patent for the technology in December of last year. Since then, the project has been steadily moving forward. A few days ago, Google started testing their vehicles on Nevada roads, following approval by the state’s Legislative Commission. With the inevitability of autonomous transportation creeping closer, measures to ensure its realization are being pursued by more companies than just Google.

Peter Stone, a professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Austin, and his team are working on developing a “smart” intersection that would manage the flow of driverless cars, reports techworld.com.

According to Stone’s project, intersections would be equipped with a manager that would coordinate traffic in an efficient and mathematical way. Techworld reports:

‘"When a car gets close to the intersection, it calls ahead and says, 'I want to go through the intersection.' The intersection manager says either yes or no. It keeps track of the reservations it grants and makes sure it doesn't give permission to other cars that would conflict with them," Stone said.’

To learn more, check out the full article: “Scientists develop computer-controlled intersections for self-driving cars.”