Massachusetts Institute of Technology
There’s a mesmerizing video animation on YouTube of simulated, self-driving traffic streaming through a six-lane, four-way intersection. Dozens of cars flow through the streets, pausing, turning, slowing, and speeding up to avoid colliding with their neighbors. And not a single car stopping. But what if even one of those vehicles was not autonomous? What if only one was?
In the coming decades, autonomous vehicles will play a growing role in society, whether keeping drivers safer, making deliveries, or increasing accessibility and mobility for elderly or disabled passengers.
But MIT Assistant Professor Cathy Wu argues that autonomous vehicles are just part of a complex transport system that may involve individual self-driving cars, delivery fleets, human drivers, and a range of last-mile solutions to get passengers to their doorstep – not to mention road infrastructure like highways, roundabouts, and, yes, intersections.