A team at North Carolina State University ran a series of simulations to investigate the impact of the widespread use of autonomous vehicles in cities. 

The researchers found that although connected vehicles – which share data with each other wirelessly – significantly improve travel time through intersections, automated vehicles’ focus on safety leads them to slow down when not connected to other cars.

“There are two significant reasons that people are interested in automated vehicles – improving passenger safety and reducing travel time,” said Ali Hajbabaie, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University.

“There is a lot of research showing that automated vehicles can improve safety. But our research here – which relies on computational modelling – suggests that if we want to also improve travel time, an increase in automated vehicles isn’t enough; we need vehicles that are capable of communicating...