<story><title>Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication Could Replace Traffic Lights, Shorten Commutes</title><url>https://spectrum.ieee.org/transportation/infrastructure/how-vehicletovehicle-communication-could-replace-traffic-lights-and-shorten-commutes</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>toast0</author><text>&amp;gt; The principle behind the traffic light has hardly changed since the device was invented in 1912 and deployed in Salt Lake City, and two years later, in Cleveland. It works on a timer-based approach, which is why you sometimes find yourself sitting behind a red light at an intersection when there are no other cars in sight. The timing can be adjusted to match traffic patterns at different points in the commuting cycle, but that is about all the fine-tuning you can do, and it’s not much.&lt;p&gt;I guess these people never heard of common techniques to detect vehicles - in surface wire loops to detect inductance changes from a car or bicycle, and cameras. When the detectors are far enough back from the intersections, you have enough time to (safely) cycle the signal for lone cars in the middle of the night, without the car having to stop -- my experience with well tuned traffic controls was i would just need to take my foot off the accelerator, and the light would usually change to green before i would have started braking.&lt;p&gt;That works well in a grid based suburb, I understand Pittsburgh has a lot more constraints, but detectors are still useful, even if they&amp;#x27;re only at the limit line.&lt;p&gt;Reading further:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; It’s important to note that VTL technology needs no camera, radar, or lidar.&lt;p&gt;Yes, trusting the communications network, without verifying the situation sounds like a great idea. Just like I always hit the accelerator right when the light turns green, without regard to if the intersection is clear, or if there are any signs that any other vehicles are likely to pass through soon.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, I feel like people working in the self-driving space, and the maps for driving space have never actually driven a vehicle on the road.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bobthepanda</author><text>They also don&amp;#x27;t seem to care about other road users. The time cycles are a feature, not a bug, because you can&amp;#x27;t use technology to speed up how quickly an old grandma with a walker walks across the street. Grade separating roads and pedestrians is very costly, and more importantly, not desirable, because humans are much less able to deal with grade changes than cars, and because underpasses and overpasses remove people from the &amp;#x27;eyes and ears&amp;#x27; of the street and create crevices for crime.</text></comment>
<story><title>Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication Could Replace Traffic Lights, Shorten Commutes</title><url>https://spectrum.ieee.org/transportation/infrastructure/how-vehicletovehicle-communication-could-replace-traffic-lights-and-shorten-commutes</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>toast0</author><text>&amp;gt; The principle behind the traffic light has hardly changed since the device was invented in 1912 and deployed in Salt Lake City, and two years later, in Cleveland. It works on a timer-based approach, which is why you sometimes find yourself sitting behind a red light at an intersection when there are no other cars in sight. The timing can be adjusted to match traffic patterns at different points in the commuting cycle, but that is about all the fine-tuning you can do, and it’s not much.&lt;p&gt;I guess these people never heard of common techniques to detect vehicles - in surface wire loops to detect inductance changes from a car or bicycle, and cameras. When the detectors are far enough back from the intersections, you have enough time to (safely) cycle the signal for lone cars in the middle of the night, without the car having to stop -- my experience with well tuned traffic controls was i would just need to take my foot off the accelerator, and the light would usually change to green before i would have started braking.&lt;p&gt;That works well in a grid based suburb, I understand Pittsburgh has a lot more constraints, but detectors are still useful, even if they&amp;#x27;re only at the limit line.&lt;p&gt;Reading further:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; It’s important to note that VTL technology needs no camera, radar, or lidar.&lt;p&gt;Yes, trusting the communications network, without verifying the situation sounds like a great idea. Just like I always hit the accelerator right when the light turns green, without regard to if the intersection is clear, or if there are any signs that any other vehicles are likely to pass through soon.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, I feel like people working in the self-driving space, and the maps for driving space have never actually driven a vehicle on the road.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>akira2501</author><text>&amp;gt; have never actually driven a vehicle on the road.&lt;p&gt;More importantly,  have never driven a _variety_ of vehicles down the road.  I ride a motorcycle,  it&amp;#x27;s clear most of these plans have no concept of what that&amp;#x27;s like.</text></comment>