When we have autonomous cars will we be able to have the ability to make roads bi-directional?  Meaning during parts of the day one or both side of the road could be going in the same direction.  Or sometimes switching (like going from USA style to driving like people in England).  Or will our roads be constructed to not need to do this?  Or is it actually less efficient to do that sort of thing and just keep everyone driving on the right side of the road?

My hypothesis is that given local communication and cooperation of the cars, a dynamic road rules system that can adapt to the needs of the traffic will be much more efficient than the static rules that we currently adhere to currently.  Already we know of the crazy taxi drivers that can get you to your destination faster than anyone else and its because they are willing to break the rules.  Of course this is extremely dangerous now, but when the cars agree to change the rules I think that it will be even safer than if they would continue to follow the current set of rules.  For reasons just like the taxi driver that is willing to break the rules.  So, I’m pretty sure patterns will emerge and norms will develop and an equilibrium established where at particular times of day the roads are like x and at another time they are like y.  I believe that a system like this would also be better for emergency situations.  The ability to dynamically adjust the traffic patterns along a route would be life saving.  Also, logistics/trucking companies could purchase “routes” sort of like advertisements on google.  Essentially giving their destination a higher priority than normal.

Knot theory?  Seems like loops may develop and the cars might end up colliding or creating longer paths in order to avoid colliding.

Control theory and DA?  Much of this would build on a reliable lane changing and driving control constructs.  Hopefully a bit of distributed AI in there as well.

MAS/L?  For the higher level decision making, cooperation, and goal setting, definitely relevant.  The cars have to on their own form coalitions and make decisions that will most certainly produce ripple effects that they will not be able to predict but other coalitions must adapt to.  These systems will be very large and complex.  However, I believe that given that they will learn quickly (lots of info) and change at a reasonable pace that a MAS is called for here.

Is it homogenous.  No!  There are all types of vehicles and types of traffic.  This makes it very interesting.  What weight do they bring to the system.

Is it hierarchical?  Seems like different locations might represent parts of the hierarchy.  At least in terms of how much of the system they can effect by making changes to the rules.  The hierarchy in this case would be highly dynamic based on time of day.  Maybe there is an underlying hierarchy that might form naturally when looking at the coalitions of traffic.  I mean this is essentially what happened when we added lanes to the highways.  Right?  We created a hierarchy of types and goals of the drivers.  I think that not only will there be natural hierarchies, but I also think that there may be the need to impose or provide engineered hierarchies.  This would help the system to more quickly adapt and realize the importance of events.

I think that I mainly had this idea because as I was waiting in a line to check out a small kid asked her mom why they had to stand in this long line.  She reminded me of the need to nurture the ability to see past the norms of society, such as having to wait in line, and produce creative solutions.  The kid is right, we really shouldn’t need to have to wait in a long line to purchase items from an outlet.  We have the technology to eliminate them.  Most of the time we can avoid lines by purchasing things online.  But, we still are in the habit of purchasing food things from local stores.  So, there is still the line.  Giant has installed in some of there stores a scanner so that you can scan you groceries as you add them to your cart.  For more than a few items this becomes a hassle.  Safeway has a program where you can order your groceries and employees can deliver them to you.  This does not seem efficient, or cost effective when only a few are doing this.

I dream of when you could walk in and your phone already has created a list of things that you probably will want and compiled the available coupons and deals for those items.  You would then scroll through the list and approve and remove the selections.  As you are browsing and finding the other things that were not on the list your order is being packaged by robots and humans in the back.  The more standard your order is you could get reduced price.

Well that was a lot.