Safety and efficiency of intersections with mix of connected and non-connected vehicles

Abstract

Connected and autonomous vehicles have been significantly studied. They are connected to a network and communicate by exchanging information with each other, so they can detect blind spots that cannot be recognized by non-connected (conventional) vehicles. Therefore, they are expected to contribute to traffic efficiency and safety. However, even if connected vehicles are put to practical use in the future, it will take time to spread to the market, so it is considered that connected vehicles and non-connected vehicles will be mixed on the road. We proposed a method of enabling connected vehicles to share the information gathered from their sensors on surrounding vehicles near intersection in the mixed situation. We then examined the safety and efficiency of passing through an intersection through simulation. We found that efficiency improved and safety could be ensured compared to using conventional methods such as stopping before the intersection without using communication and using traffic lights.