Driverless cars and freeway traffic flow

Analysis shows platooning and wave damping can reduce congestion.

The integration of driverless cars onto multilane freeways brings challenges for vehicle and infrastructure planners, not the least of which is ever increasing congestion. The threshold for serious congestion is a population of 300,000. The U.S. currently has 51 traffic-congested cities with population of 380,000 or more.

Can driverless vehicles with full vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) connectivity favorably affect congestion? The answer is yes. This means construction of new freeway lanes may not be needed except in exceptional cases.