AV Imagination Projects are meant to capture the imagine with forward-thinking ideas that promote the usage of autonomous vehicles. Some may be far-fetched, others more tangible and ripe for additional research. We’d love to hear yours!
Having an autonomous vehicle drive up to your house and whisk you away directly to your location might be further off than we’d all like. But how about an iterative step? Imagine that on your next trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles or Los Angeles to Vegas, you and your friends metro to an AV hub. You jump aboard a waiting AV, and at a press of a button, glide along central California on lanes dedicated to autonomous vehicles.
Need a pit stop? Want to stop by that jerky place? Want to support some of the local and interesting businesses along the way? Just click the icon on the dash. Want to snooze away or play a game? Feel free. (Want to do, ahem, other things? That’s probably some kind of rule against that.)
Dedicated autonomous lanes could be a reality, and help bridge the gap between today’s manually driven roads and totally autonomous roadways. They could be used to get real-world miles on AVs, while safely testing them outside of normal traffic. They could also be used to test additional infrastructure improvements, such as electronic road markers and AV linked traffic signals. Human-driven traffic may even share the lanes if their drivers cared to do so.
Dedicated Autonomous lanes even have the potential to more efficiently transport Californians than the current train, and help the local economies of central California’s cities and towns.
At the same time, many argue that solidifying regulatory policy is a more immediate need. And at some point, autonomous cars shouldn’t need a dedicated lane, as the technology would allow them to seamlessly blend in with existing traffic. So are autonomous lanes would be a worthwhile effort? With your support, we’ll be researching several AV Imagination projects, but we’d love to hear your thoughts below!
Pingback: Our Favorite State Legislative Research Resources - Autonomous Vehicles California