Berkeley Science Review, Spring 2016 Issue

Traffic Jammin’: Making automated transportation a reality (full article)

by Cathy Wu

Editor: Levi Gayde

Following UC Berkeley PATH’s automated highway project of 1997, recent decades have seen a tremendous amount of progress in automating transportation. Tech giants, ride hailing services, and car manufacturers alike are jumping in on the scene. But why is traffic still a problem? This article is a synthesis of the progress and the challenges to come, focusing on challenges and ongoing research in improving safety, energy efficiency, and ease of use of transportation systems.

A self-driving taxi picks you up at home and seamlessly delivers you to work. Automated vehicles deliver your lunch and your packages; they pick up your kids from school; they magically solve the problem of finding a parking spot; and they eliminate drunk driving. Transportation is as easy as clicking a hyperlink in a browser. With minimal effort on your part, available vehicles are routed to you, intelligently balancing network congestion to quickly get you where you’re going. (Read more…)

If you have any thoughts, please leave a comment here or at the article!

(The self-driving car cartoon is actually from my previous article!)

Image credits: Florian Brown-Altvater, Arend Van Dam