16 January 2011

Autonomous Automobiles ~ Highway Roadtrains

I'm very interested in the prospect for autonomous automobile systems leading to efficient roadtrains on highways where drivers release control of their cars to a central system which runs them fast and efficient and coordinated together as platoons. While fully autonomous cars operating on everyday streets in mixed-use systems are probably quite a ways away, it is plausible and even likely that properly equipped cars and trucks could use what are today thought of as High Occupancy/Toll lanes or HOT lanes. P.S. One final bonus is that any future model HOT Car equipped with the requisite HOT Controls technology could not only use a HOT Lane, but could also park (and retrieve) itself in a HOT Parking lot, thus eliminating a major hassle for the everyday driver. Check out this Stanford prototype... P.S. Addendum to this post: Turns out today 18 January 2011, the BBC's Mark Ward writes about 'Road train' technology trials get rolling.

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