Driveless, Non-Automous Traffic Management System

Autonomous Traffic System Advancements today

According to Techopedia (2019), an autonomous system is meant to be a collection of networks or a network itself which is being controlled and monitored by one entity or a center. There have been many imaginations of different autonomous systems in the human brains and one of the most discussed system is the autonomous traffic system. The reason for its popularity is the advancements that haven been made so far. Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) have funded $7.5 million to collaborate with other transportation stakeholders to see how the current situation has been with respect to roads and accidents and how an autonomous system can be beneficial (Stone, 2020).

Likewise, this technology is being tested by many mainstream companies. Waymo, Google's sister-company Alphabet's self-driving unit, held successful automated taxi experiments in California, carrying more than 6,200 passengers in the first month and thousands afterwards. For autonomous vehicles they represent a realistic business case. Companies such as Walmart are using autonomous cargo for their deliveries. Meanwhile, Pizza hut is also collaborating with Toyota to make autonomous cooking plus delivery vehicle. After its launch, Tesla has delivered more than 780,000 vehicles to consumers, most of which come with pre-installed, self-driving capabilities available to users who buy the software needed. More companies like Ford, Nissan and Mercedes are all extensively working on this technology (Harris, 2020). Though this technology so far has had lots of success but making it into a close system is still difficult.

How to operate an autonomous traffic system?

In this world any technology that can be seen today and how it operates with just few or neglecting imperfections, it’s all a matter of slow progress made. Autonomous traffic system is also no exception and according to Shuttleworth (2017) and Bernard Marr (2019) there are total of 5 levels (1-5) for this system. Level 1 refers to manual vehicles, level 2 refers 2 driver is provided with some features but still most tasks done by the driver, level 3 refres to more features such as braking is introduced, level 4 refers to car is on self driving mode but still driver must be aware to take control if needed and level 5 is full automated.

This system does require level 5 autonomous vehicles and currently the level5 does not exist in the today’s context. It have been said that by 2020 the world will be able to see the prototypes of these vehicles (Bernard Marr, 2019). Yet things don’t go according to plan and hence till now no level 5 vehicles have been seen. Later on, this will be explained why level 5 autonomous vehicles only.

There are many other additional plannings required of this system and to mention few are roadway, transportation prices, parking, curb management, public transit needs and other implications such as demographic changes (Litman, 2020). Other than the planning itself the communication system as an autonomous system depends on the center which is regulating it. Such as according to Mraz (2019), the vehicles need to be programmed carefully in order for this tool Flow to use traffic control data from local smart cars and networks to effectively become mobile traffic managers and also they will use a cloud-based system.