Combination of DSRC and Driverless Car to Improve Traffic Condition
Haixia Liu, Meijun Liu
Department of Transportation Studies, Texas Southern University
Development of driverless car
Since 1980s, people had begun studying driverless car. Until now, some automakers have announced their products such as driverless BMW, Google's driverless car. In 2008, General Motors stated that they would begin testing driverless cars by 2015, and the cars could be on the road by 2018. In 2010, the VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge (VIAC) ran from July 26, 2010 to October 28, 2010, involving four driverless vehicles on a 15,000km trip from Parma, Italy to Shanghai, China. So driverless car has a promising future.
Technologies used in driverless car
The major technologies used in driverless car include Anti-lock brakes, traction or stability control, Pre-safe systems, Adaptive cruise control, Advance Parking Guidance System, Free Ranging On Grid technology (FROG). Through these technologies, driverless car can preventitself from going into an out-of-control skid or rolling over. Also the driverless car can anticipate crashes and prepare the car to keep occupants safe by slowing the engine or providing airbags and tightening seatbelt. Using radar sensors on the front of the car, adaptive cruise control can detect object and its speed in front of it; the car could stop or change lanes to avoid conflict with the object.
Advantages of DSRC
DSRC has been dedicated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)to be used for vehicle safety and other mobility applications in 2004. DSRC has robust characteristics in radio communication and strong performance during adverse weather conditions.According to FCC, DSRC can be used in several areas, such as traffic management, maintenance construction operations, public transit management, electronic payment, commercial vehicle operations, emergency management, et al. Using DSRC in vehicles and infrastructures will greatly improve traffic safety.
Feasibility of combining DSRC and driverless cars
Driverless car has limited detection coverage. For example, both static and moving pedestrians can be detected to a range of around 30 meters using VGA resolution imagers. The road condition beyond this range is hard to detect, especially under disastrous weather or with big traffic congestion miles ahead, so driverless car would be unable to reroute in advance based on its own technology.
DSRC has a much wider range (~1000 meters). So by combining driverless car and DSRC system, the car can receive information out of its detection range. DSRC system could send urgent information which is on the car’s route to the driverless car. Then by specific computer programming, driverless car would take action beforehand. Besides, with the network of DSRC systems, the information of road condition could propagate even further away.
Benefits
Reduce traffic collisions
Driver inattention and driver error are the major cause of traffic accidents. A statistics shows that driving drunk causes more than 32% of fatal crashes, and distracted driver talking influences 81% of auto crashes. Without human operating factors in the travel process, driverless vehicles would successfully get rid of these bad drivingmanners. With the help of DSRC, driverless car can discern and avoid collisions with random obstacles or non-cooperative road users, which is hard for the car to detect by itself.
The network of DSRC system can also send weather information to the driverless cars and help these cars take effective action. For example, if there is a tornado hundreds of miles away, DSRC system would send information such as tornado’s speed, direction and power to driverless car, then the car could decide whether to stop and find a safe place or continue going based on its route.
Improve roadway capacity
Driverless car can travel at shorter headway by communicating with other vehicles and infrastructures. This could greatly improve roadway capacity.DSRC network can also provide traffic congestion information to driverless car, with the guidance of DSRC system, driverless car could be able to choose most optimal route.
Make individual’s journey more enjoyable
DSRC can help driverless vehicles choose optimal route, based on the owner's favorites, like good sight view, shortest travel time. With safe operations, driverless cars could make it possible for people to enjoy their journey, save time for businessman to do more valuable things when traveling.
Make city greener by enhancing bus-ride experience
By communicating with DSRC system, driverless bus could provide its exact position to waiting passengers by displaying this information in a LED screen. DSRC could provide the number of waiting passengers and their position to driverless bus and the bus control center, by analyzing these data, bus control center could optimize bus schedule or make dynamic bus schedule.
Bus signal priority will be provided when detecting the existence of buses approaching intersections. Automatic fare collection would make riding a bus much more efficient and convenient. In addition, driverless bus would automatically collect rider information by using a special bus card, which would make riding buses much safer.
Reduce business transportation cost and improve business competition
Driverless truck would help companies save a lot money by not hiring exclusive drivers, reducing employees dealing with logistics, and guarantying their delivery quality. Driverless truck traveling under DSRC system would be much easier to be tracked and companies could use the delivery information, such as path and time, to improve their logistics.
Risks and challenges
The biggest challenge in the future would be public acceptance. It is not a simple thing for people to trust driverless car with their lives. Certain time is needed for people to know special functions of driverless car and DSRC. Advertisement may be a useful way to convert people’s opinion.
References
Federal Communications Commission, FCC 03-324. February 10, 2004
Car accident advice.
Vislab.