One of the purported benefits of driverless cars is that they can drive together in packs. This article would seem to contradict the benefits of that claim. OTOH they would be less prone to the erratic behavior that can create standing waves of congestion.
They can drive together in packs because they can brake and accelerate in a synchronized way, instead of creating waves of accelerating and braking cars.
Driving on lengthy highways in Australia is interesting, at least in the state of Victoria, where enforcement of the speed limit is very strict. The limits of 100kmh and 110kmh are enforced within a mandated speedometer error limit that's very tight for new cars. Older ones have looser accuracy, predating the legislation that enforces the error limit.
One if the consequences is that on long stretches of road, cars that are very slightly quicker catch up with others. Then, because there's safety in numbers, and because other cars normalise speed through a kind of meaning speed check, clusters form. Overtaking is tantamount to breaking the law, though some attempt to creep by, leading to reduced distance between vehicles, and increased stress for drivers due to reduced reaction time.
Under these kind of circumstances, a strong argument could be made for driverless cars, if only to avoid the increased potential for collision due to driver error. And it demonstrates for one embedded in the packs that form, the kind of experience that we can expect.
I've been on roads where this happens in Britain, when a police car is driving at the speed limit (generally quite loosely enforced on motorways) with people behind forming a cluster which won't overtake out of fear. Quite frightening, and surely combining the worst of all worlds in terms of accident risk (both a high risk of an accident and a high risk of an accident causing fatal or serious injury).
I asked my aunt, who is a police officer, about this, and she said in general the police try and drive slowly (well below the speed limit) on the motorways to prevent this phenomenon from occurring. I wonder whether the guy I saw was doing it deliberately or had just forgotten..
It's an interesting idea, even though not as advanced as Google's car.
I'd like to see results of testing, especially for the standing wave phenomenon, but also how a truck driver copes with driving "a vehicle" that is many times longer than what they're used to driving.
