Professors Asad Khattak and Lee Han (CEE), along with researchers from UT Chattanooga and the UT Space Institute are developing new standards and tests for automated vehicles, an important shift up toward a driverless future.
Together, they are creating methods of communication between vehicles and giving those vehicles the ability to collect information along a route. Doing so will allow the “brains” of such vehicles to make decisions like when to start applying the vehicle’s brakes regardless of whether it is because a car in front suddenly slows or because a traffic signal tells it that it is about to move from green to yellow.
Though autonomous vehicles may be the eventual goal, Khattak said that the work has other benefits, such as helping drivers better anticipate traffic flow, speed, and delays.