Kari Watkins and Michael Hunter published an essay in Newsweek Dec. 10 asking a provocative question about our autonomous transportation future. Namely: Is it possible the widespread adoption of driverless cars will worsen traffic congestion rather than make it better?
On the roadway toward autonomous vehicles, we probably have another decade or so before the truly independent car is part of our transportation network. But, Michael Hunter told WABE-FM’s Closer Look Sept. 26, we’re already in a world with partially driverless cars, where our vehicles help us with some of the tasks of driving.
The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Michael Hunter uses computer models to study the management and operation of our future roadways, and he has identified a few of the issues policymakers and drivers will confront when self-driving cars travel our highways and bi-ways.
Transportation researcher Michael Hunter says driverless cars are coming to our roads, whether we’re ready for them or not. But already, our cars are generating some of the mountains of data coming from our transportation systems. In an interview with Georgia Public Broadcasting, Hunter said drivers must be ready for cars beside them to operate without people behind the wheel.
Imagine sharing the highway with cars driven by computers rather than people. Google is rather famously experimenting with such self-driving vehicles. And a Georgia General Assembly study committee is weighing the issues around allowing these driverless cars on the state’s roads. The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Michael Hunter has served as an expert witness for the committee and outlined some of the issues in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution guest column Oct. 7.
A Georgia House of Representatives committee is studying what hurdles the state would face if it allowed driverless cars on roadways. Associate Professor Michael Hunter was a key witness at a hearing last week, outlining some of the engineering and traffic problems that will have to be solved if lawmakers decide to allow the autonomous vehicles.
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Mason Building, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355
Phone: 404-894-2201
Fax: 404-894-2278