Self-driving cars evoke an image of perfectly synchronized traffic moving through streets as all the vehicles coordinate with each other. Of course, this is a future vision and not the current state of autonomous vehicles. But the process of going from a few self-driving cars to a fully automated grid will be a slow process.

Sharon Di, traffic engineer and Columbia University researcher, is here to help explain how engineers and policymakers think about these issues.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Video of waymo car failing to merge: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/sciencetech/video-1752896/Video-Waymos-self-driving-minivans-struggles-merge-left-lane.html

Arizona ring road experiment: http://csl.arizona.edu/content/dampening-traffic-waves-autonomous-vehicles

Academic review article about AV ring road studies: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3494577

Video of Sharon’s talk at IMSI: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/driving-and-routing-games-for-autonomous-vehicles-on-networks-a-mean-field-game-approach/

Video explainer on traffic and self-driving cars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzzSao6ypE

Check your feed to see previous episodes mentioned, including Dario on Honeybees and Merouane on 5G.

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Sharon Di: https://www.civil.columbia.edu/faculty/sharon-di

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.