Citation

Kerner BS. Phys. Rev. E 2018; 97(4-1): e042303.

Affiliation

Physics of Transport and Traffic, University Duisburg-Essen, 47048 Duisburg, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Physical Society)

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevE.97.042303

PMID

29758629

Abstract

We have revealed physical features of automated driving in the framework of the three-phase traffic theory for which there is no fixed time headway to the preceding vehicle. A comparison with the classical model approach to automated driving for which an automated driving vehicle tries to reach a fixed (desired or "optimal") time headway to the preceding vehicle has been made. It turns out that automated driving in the framework of the three-phase traffic theory can exhibit the following advantages in comparison with the classical model of automated driving: (i) The absence of string instability. (ii) Considerably smaller speed disturbances at road bottlenecks. (iii) Automated driving vehicles based on the three-phase theory can decrease the probability of traffic breakdown at the bottleneck in mixed traffic flow consisting of human driving and automated driving vehicles; on the contrary, even a single automated driving vehicle based on the classical approach can provoke traffic breakdown at the bottleneck in mixed traffic flow.

Language: en