 |
Adaptive Cruise Control
Adaptive cruise control implemented in just one out of five cars could significantly improve highway safety and reduce traffic jams, according to a recent study by a University of Michigan physicist.
Scientists concluded more than a decade ago that cars behave like molecules in a gas. When cars ahead of you stop or slow down, it's like a compression pressure wave propagating back to you. It can last for hours, long after the original stimulus to slow down has been fixed (remember all those times you jammed on the brakes, and yet never got to the "problem" further down the road?). As many as three-quarters of traffic jams are like this.
Adaptive cruise control uses a radar sensor to gauge distance between vehicles, adjusting speed to maintain safe distance. With faster than human reaction times, they make tailgating safer. And ACC can reduce the problem of "compression wave" slowdowns, since ACC does not just slam on the brakes. Computer simulations show that if only one car in five had ACC, there would be far fewer traffic jams.
For the sf view on smart vehicles, see the entry for Camden Speedster from Robert Heinlein's 1958 novel Methuselah's Children. For more on the story, see A few computer-controlled cars can help traffic; thanks to
Techdirt for the story.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/2/2004)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Artificial Intelligence ")
Computer Simulates Daydreaming
Perhaps you will dream of HAL, just as I often do.- Arthur C. Clarke, 1982.
ZenRobotics Sorts Trash With Artificial Intelligence
'They're just plain lifting robots and not too brainy, but good enough to recognize most things they pick up...'- Harry Harrison, 1956.
'Hello, Computer!' Google Now Highlighted at IO13
'Hello, computer!'- Gene Roddenberry, 1986.
Universal Translator: Google Translate Has 51 Offline Language Packs
He immediately turned the small shining disc of the Language Rectifier on his instrument till the pointer rested on 'French.'- Hugo Gernsback, 1911.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
Haute Cuisine On International Space Station
'The gas gave sufficient heat for the culinary apparatus...'
Tongue Mouse Created By Valve Engineer
'He pressed hard with his tongue against his right upper first molar.'
K5 Autonomous Data Machine The Future Of Mall Security
''Halt!' A robot guard appeared...'
RF Safe-Stop Shuts Cars Off
'...a police control-override.'
Army's New Bird-Like Surveillance UAV
'The prototype blue-bellied, gray-backed tracer-bird with the wide-angle eye...'
Honda's Tumblebug - The UNI-CUB beta
'A tumblebug does not give a man dignity...'
NASA's LADEE Enters Lunar Orbit
'... dust normally on the surface picks up and keeps a charge.'
3D Printing An Entire Car
"... Almost as good as the original it was printed from."
Aldebaran Robot Talks Like C3PO - Almost
'See Vee Threepio - Vee for versatility - at your service...'
Google's Skin Tattoo Lie Detector
'Three and a half centimetres in diameter, permanently fixed in the centre of his forehead.'
inFORM Dynamic Shape Output Device
Like that pushpin device you remember, but supercharged.
Owlet Vitals, The Future Of Baby Monitoring
'In every diaper there is a fine copper wire...'
Robert Heinlein, Your Personal Electric Helicopter Will Be Ready In 2016
"They were half way home when a single flyer, hopping free in a copter harness, approached the little parade."
WildCat Runs Faster Than You, Untethered
'...moving with such drifting ease that it was like a single solid cloud of black-grey smoke blown at him in silence.' Almost.
HiBot's ACM-R5H Robot Video Shows Graceful Terminator-Style Swimming
'No! No! Aaaaaaarrrrrrgh!'
tDCS Jumpstarts Your Future
'We invented a scanner that can change the labyrinthine neural connections of the brain by tiny electronic impulses...'.
