Can the autonomous car create more traffic jams?

The autonomous car, a solution to traffic jams?

The autonomous car operates differently from a non-assisted car. This will actually drive slower than a regular car. It starts slower and brakes more gently.

Why?

In order to minimize the risk of an accident and consume less energy. In a city with only self-driving cars, traffic will slow down.

Does it mean that it is safer? Not so sure.

Nowadays, 90% of accidents on our roads are related to human error. The goal of self-driving cars was to overcome human error.

However, accidents that have taken place in prototype self-driving cars show us the opposite. Last March, two fatal accidents occurred in the United States within months of each other. The person behind the wheel, not having been called upon by the car for a long time, did not know how to act immediately on the controls when the danger that was fatal to him was present.

It is also planned that the autonomous car can be used empty. Thus, a person arriving in the city center to do their shopping for a few hours will be more inclined to send the car home rather than to pay for a parking space. A quarter of cars are in fact traveling empty, resulting in an increase in traffic and congestion in cities.

Finally, in addition to increasing traffic and congestion , the autonomous car would facilitate access to the car for all. People who do not have a driving license or who are no longer able to drive could use self-driving cars, for example children or the elderly. Access to cars for all will be facilitated and we can therefore expect a real reduction in the use of public transport if measures are not taken by the public authorities.

“From an environmental point of view, the autonomous car is a priori catastrophic, since it will facilitate the use of the automobile”, confirms Bertrand-Olivier Ducreux, of the transport and mobility service of the Environment Agency and the control of the 'energy (Ademe)

Towards a collaborative technology adapted to decongest cities

Faced with the skepticism of some detractors of the autonomous car, a study German, conducted in a city of 132,000 inhabitants north of Munich demonstrates that if all cars were autonomous and automated traffic management. These cars would be equipped with robots perfectly capable of adapting their speed to traffic lights and their surroundings.

Why such a time saver while others agree that self-driving cars increase traffic jams in urban areas? The simple act of automating traffic in traffic by connecting cars together to a network is said to be the cause. The study also takes into account the fact that there would even be more cars in circulation as robot taxis would compete with local transport for the mobility of children and the elderly, in particular.

A another scientific study carried out states that self-driving cars are in fact able to avoid traffic jams. Where, in a traffic jam, a human tends to brake and accelerate strongly and to want to stick the bumper of the car in front of him, the autonomous car has a much more adapted behavior and has a beneficial effect on the slowing waves ( it is the accordion effect in the caps). The study also shows that 5% of autonomous cars in current traffic jams would allow a reduction in traffic jams.

In an individualistic world, the autonomous car could be seen as an opportunity to encourage city dwellers to a new form of carsharing and carpooling.

We have seen with BlablaCar and the rise of carpooling sites that human beings were and to share their vehicles for a more humane economy and more respectful of the planet.

The autonomous car could therefore be put available to everyone, resulting in a reduction in traffic jams in urban areas, by the decrease in the number of vehicles in circulation.

The problem that still remains today with regard to the autonomous car lies in the number of laws and the type of laws to be put in place to regulate use. If autonomous cars are ready to be launched on the market, the legal framework is not yet clearly established.

While the challenge of the autonomous car opens up many horizons, it cannot be launched only in an economy structured by laws and which will agree to pool cars for an optimization of traffic and traffic management.