A System In Sync

Smart cars need smart roads.

- By Fiona Young-Brown

It is time to go to school. You go to the bus stop and at exactly the correct time, the bus arrives. There is no driver. The bus can drive itself. You get on, sit down, and the bus continues its journey. In the lane next to you, you see several cars, but no one is driving them either. Instead, people are chatting or even reading a book. The bus stops at an intersection because it has communicated with the traffic lights and knows that pedestrians are crossing the road. It is just pulling away when it stops again. It has detected a child running into the street. A few minutes later, you arrive at school, safe and ready to start your day.

Thinking about a possible future with self-driving cars is exciting. It could mean fewer accidents and fewer traffic jams. But creating self-driving cars (also known as an autonomous vehicle or AV) is not as simple as you might think. They need smart roads and smart infrastructure where computers work together and communicate to make sure that everything works safely and efficiently.

But what would smart roads look like? And why do we need them?

How Humans Drive