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 15,000 km 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 prevent itself 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 DS RC 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 driving manners. 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. http://www.car-accident-advice.com/car-accident-causes.html

Vislab. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisLab