Page 23 - Jan/Feb 2023 Vol 40 No 6

“Ripple Effect” of AI Driving Behavior and autonomous vehicles have on traffic In a joint statement, the Consortium
Preliminary results show that the in an open road setting,” said Meredith reflected on the impact of results
“driving behavior” of one single AI- Cebelak, adjunct instructor in civil and taken from one single day during the
equipped vehicle could influence the environmental engineering at Vanderbilt. experiment.
speed and driving behavior of up to She also is a Tennessee Transportation “On November 16 alone, the system
20 surrounding cars, causing a kind of Systems Management and Operations recorded a total of 143,010 miles driven
positive ripple effect in day-to-day traffic. Department Leader at Gresham Smith. and 3,780 hours of driving. The I-24
The CIRCLES Consortium will spend the “The permanent infrastructure has MOTION system, combined with vehicle
coming months analyzing data collected been designed and installed, meaning the energy models developed in the CIRCLES
on the AI-equipped vehicles and their testbed will always be ‘on’ and available project, provided an estimation of the
impact on the flow of traffic over the to researchers. By unlocking a new fuel consumption of the whole traffic flow
duration of the experiment. understanding of how these vehicles during those hours.
The test, conducted on the recently- influence traffic, vehicle, infrastructure, “The concept we are hoping to
opened I-24 MOTION testbed, is the and traffic management strategies, demonstrate is that by leveraging this
only real-world automotive testing design can be optimized to reduce traffic new traffic system to collect data and
environment of its kind in existence. concerns in the future to improve safety, estimate traffic and applying artificial
Stretching for four miles just southeast of air quality and fuel efficiency,” she said. intelligence technology to existing cruise
downtown Nashville, the smart highway Easing Traffic Jams, Improving Fuel control systems, we can ease traffic jams
is equipped with 300 4K digital sensors Economy and improve fuel economy,” the CIRCLES
capable of logging 260,000,000 vehicle- The CIRCLES Consortium research team said.
miles of data per year. is supported by the National Science
Researchers hope additional studies Foundation and the U.S. Departments of
using the testbed may glean fresh insights Transportation and Energy. Support also CIRCLES Researchers
regarding related traffic flow issues and was provided by Toyota North America and Original Equipment
strategies. and General Motors. The experiment Manufacturers (OEMs)
“The I-24 MOTION project is a first- included Toyota RAV4 and Cadillac XT5
of-its-kind testbed, where we’ll be able to vehicles. Alexandre Bayen, Associate Provost
study in real time the impact connected and Liao-Cho Professor, Department of
Electrical Engineering & Computer Science,
University of California, Berkeley

Maria Laura Delle Monache, Assistant
Professor, Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, University of
California, Berkeley
Jonathan Lee, Senior Engineering
Manager and Project Manager, Institute
of Transportation Studies, University of
California, Berkeley
Benedetto Piccoli, Vice Chancellor
for Research and Joseph and Loretta
Lopez Chair Professor, Department of
Mathematical Sciences, Rutgers University-
Camden
Benjamin Seibold, Professor, Department
of Mathematics, Temple University
Jonathan Sprinkle, Professor, Department
of Computer Science, Vanderbilt University
Daniel Work, Professor, Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering, Vanderbilt
University
OEMs
Nissan North America, Toyota, General
Motors

View online at tnpublicworks.com 23