Can Ants Teach Us How to Program Self-Driving Cars? (scientificamerican.com)
- Reference: 0176661843
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/09/2144209/can-ants-teach-us-how-to-program-self-driving-cars
- Source link: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-ants-may-save-you-from-future-traffic-jams/
> A study published in [2]
>> Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
> investigates how ants avoid traffic jams.... Quoting the abstract: "The results show that ants adopt specific traffic strategies (platoon formation, quasi-constant speed and no overtaking maneuvers) that help avoid jam phenomena, even at high density." "Researchers are now studying these insects' cooperative tactics to learn how to program self-driving cars that don't jam up," [3]writes Scientific American :
>> "We're maximizing the interests of individuals, [which] is why, at a given point, you start to have a traffic jam," says study co-author Nicola Pugno, who studies sustainable engineering at the University of Trento in Italy. But self-driving cars, if they one day become ubiquitous, could have more cooperative programming. In one vision of this future, autonomous vehicles would share information with nearby cars to optimize traffic flow — perhaps, the researchers suggest, by prioritizing constant speeds and headways or by not passing others on the road...
>>
>> Today's drivers can learn at least one thing from ants to avoid causing a traffic jam, says Katsuhiro Nishinari [a mathematical physicist at the University of Tokyo, who studies traffic]: don't tailgate. By leaving room between their car and the one ahead of them, drivers can absorb a wave of braking in dense traffic conditions that would otherwise be amplified into a full-blown "phantom" traffic jam with no obvious cause. "Just keeping away," he says, can help traffic flow smoothly.
>
> In the article the researchers admit there are differences between humans stuck in traffic and ants. "Unlike cars, ants don't crash; they can literally walk over one another." And if they're backed up in a tunnel, "they'll find a way to walk on the ceiling!"
[1] https://www.slashdot.org/~gdm
[2] https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2590198225000107
[3] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-ants-may-save-you-from-future-traffic-jams/
Wanna fix traffic? (Score:2)
Ban humans from driving altogether. Self driving cars would probably be a done deal if it didn't have to deal with insane human drivers that do unpredictable things.
Part of me is totally on board with no humans driving on public roadways because of how much more efficient it could be made. Of course, without a car, you lose a huge amount of freedom of movement. So long as I maintain my car and keep it fueled up or charged, I can go where ever I want, whenever I want. Not having that freedom would be very up
Re: (Score:2)
> Of course, without a car, you lose a huge amount of freedom of movement.
And [1]sometimes with a car, you lose a huge amount of freedom of movement! [youtube.com]
We badly [2]need [imgur.com] more [3]buses that don't get stuck in traffic, [youtu.be] it would free up the roads for people who are forced to drive.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqC_i9Ac_fE
[2] http://i.imgur.com/jdq0N.jpg
[3] https://youtu.be/RQY6WGOoYis
Uh huh ... (Score:2)
> Today's drivers can learn at least one thing from ants to avoid causing a traffic jam, ... By leaving room between their car and the one ahead of them, ...
And then someone else inevitably pulls in between.
Researchers fail by using the words "driver" and "learn" in the same sentence. /s
Are these headlines always terrible? (Score:2)
Seriously, can we just ban headlines with question marks at the end of them?
"Researchers study the behaviors of ants, implications for self-driving cars" is so much better than this nonsense. It's one step away from One Cool Trick Ants Hate.
15 minute cities (Score:1)
Don't worry! If the globalist ever get their "15 minute cities" off the ground, you'll never have to drive again. Everything will be within walking/biking distance.* *This doesn't apply to the globalist elite
Cooperative vs competitive (Score:2)
Human drivers act as if they are in competition with the other drivers, while ants are cooperative. Maybe self-driving cars can be trained to be cooperative, which would probably result in better driving. I think there are number of more basic problems to solve first.