Will autonomous driving make traffic lights redundant?
It is a given that autonomous driving will change traffic. However, it is unclear exactly how this works. Now, Thomas Tompkin of the Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL) for autonomous driving has said that traffic lights might no longer be needed in 20 years.
The SMLL tested two autonomous e-cars in the Southeast Londons. The project served the practical clarification of questions about autonomous driving in cities. The Department for Transport in Great Britain has invested seven million pounds for this. The project by Nissan was supported with vehicles, ran for two years. Other partners were hitachi, Connected Places Catapult, the University of Nottingham, TRL (formerly Transport Research Laboratory) and SBD Automotive.
To do this, around 270 SMLL cameras were installed along the approximately four-kilometer route, which transmitted information about traffic and the road to the cars. Differences were also found between traffic in Great Britain, Japan and the USA. As such, there are more pedestrian crossings in the UK and people in Japan are more obedient to traffic rules than in the UK.
Autonomous cars will be on the road in Great Britain before the end of this year. And the plan envisages that in 20 or 30 years traffic lights will be removed from the traffic scene.
source BBC