Research & Development World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Vehicles That Won’t Be Needing Traffic Lights?

By R&D Editors | March 23, 2016

On Aug. 5, 1914, the world’s first electric traffic signal was installed in the United States. Located in Cleveland, the device was an improvement on a traffic light put up in London in 1868 that used two arms to signal. For approximately 150 years, traffic lights have been notifying motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists when it’s safe to venture into an intersection.

But with the advent of autonomous vehicles, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Swiss Institute of Technology, and the Italian National Research Council are exploring more efficient methods to replace traffic lights. Publishing in PLOS One, the international team advocated the use of slot-based systems for intersections, which they believe can double the amount of traffic an intersection can handle all while running more smoothly.

The research was published last week.

“New information and control systems are paving the way to novel traffic management approaches,” wrote the researchers in their study. “For example, vehicles might communicate with roadside infrastructure and other vehicles to produce better-coordinated flows. Furthermore, autonomous driving is starting to enable the careful control of vehicle trajectories and the synchronization of their arrival times at intersections.”

Already, car companies are starting to implement such autonomous technologies in their vehicles. General Motors, with their 2017 Cadillac CTS, plans on introducing Dedicated Short Range Communications, which allows the vehicle to communicate mobility and safety information to other vehicles.

The new MIT principle, dubbed “Light Traffic,” works similarly to the slot-based control systems employed by airports for plane management, according to the researchers. Each vehicle is assigned a time slot, which indicates when it’ll be safe for it to pass through the intersection. Then the vehicle tweaks its speed to ensure it reaches the intersection at the designated time. 

“The doubling of bottleneck capacity, as promised by (slot-based intersections), has the potential of significantly reducing overall congestion and improving the stability and predictability of traffic,” said the researchers.

Additionally, slot-based intersections “would probably also have beneficial effects on car emissions, as they would reduce the ‘stop-and-go’ effect induced by traffic light queuing,” the researchers added. 

 

R&D 100 AWARD ENTRIES NOW OPEN:

Establish your company as a technology leader! For more than 50 years, the R&D 100 Awards have showcased new products of technological significance. You can join this exclusive community! Learn more.

Related Articles Read More >

Will consumer AI hardware be the next R&D battlefield?
Detailed view of a PCR testing kit for SARS-CoV-2 with an epidemiologist in protective gear analyzing samples to detect specific viral areas causing COVID-19 pneumonia --ar 16:9 --style raw --v 6.1 Job ID: 7e698e8b-3ac0-4058-9c69-cb803819f39e
When data goes missing: How poor data management can undermining research reproducibility
OpenAI spends $6.5 billion on Jony Ive-founded startup io
H100 image from NVIDIA
After reportedly pursuing Shanghai R&D site, Nvidia calls U.S. GPU export controls a ‘failure’
rd newsletter
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, trends, and strategies in Research & Development.
RD 25 Power Index

R&D World Digital Issues

Fall 2024 issue

Browse the most current issue of R&D World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading R&D magazine today.

Research & Development World
  • Subscribe to R&D World Magazine
  • Enews Sign Up
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • Global Funding Forecast

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search R&D World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE