The traffic jam, a problem that makes countless people desperate. In big cities, traffic jams are inevitable during the daily commute to and from work, making people upset; during holidays, traffic jams will inevitably become a scenic spot on the highway, and the long journey home will be a sigh of relief.

About the traffic jam, there are many reasons, such as encountering bad weather, road construction and other special circumstances, as well as traffic accidents and other emergencies. In addition to these reasons, the inefficiency of passage caused by human or non-human factors has also received more and more attention. According to the analysis of some industry insiders, driver distraction and driver technical immaturity ...... will also eventually cause traffic congestion. If self-driving cars can be promoted, then this problem can be circumvented.

But is this really the case?

Can self-driving cars really cure traffic jams?

Many people believe that self-driving cars are smarter and can solve traffic jams caused by inattentive drivers. In addition, self-driving cars are more disciplined, do not run red lights or change lanes at will, and can reduce congestion caused by traffic accidents.

In fact, the advantage of self-driving cars is that they are able to sense changes in road conditions ahead through sensor devices such as cameras, millimeter-wave radar and ultrasonic radar. All information data is closely calculated and fed back to the vehicle. For example, when the traffic flow is relatively large, the self-driving car will keep a certain distance from other vehicles and reduce the number of sudden braking, thus reducing the impact on the vehicles behind.

In addition, fatigue driving, drunk driving, road rage and other factors that often cause traffic accidents will no longer exist due to self-driving cars.

So, over the past few years, there has been repeated publicity about the potential of self-driving cars to ease traffic congestion and reduce traffic accidents, and because of this, major tech companies and automakers have jumped on board to develop self-driving cars.

Not long ago, Waymo, a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet, announced that it would open its driverless cab service without a safety officer to the public in Phoenix, US. Also, GM's Cruise has been licensed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles and will test driverless cars in the San Francisco area by the end of the year.

In China, Baidu's Robotaxi self-driving cab service has been open for operation in Beijing since this month. In the test area covering more than 10 stations, users can place orders for test rides directly without making reservations. In addition, Baidu in Changsha, Guangzhou and other places have also opened to the public automatic driverless cab experience service.

Currently, the pace of Baidu's commercialization of autonomous driving is accelerating. As Baidu founder Robin Li predicted in the "Baidu World 2020 Conference": 5 years after the full commercialization of self-driving cars, 10 years after the solution to the problem of traffic congestion. There is no longer a need to limit purchases and traffic, and the incidence of traffic accidents will be greatly reduced. Perhaps the realization of self-driving time will be advanced, full self-driving era is coming.

However, self-driving cars are not without limitations. A small number of self-driving cars can ease traffic congestion, but when the proportion of self-driving cars reaches a certain value, traffic congestion may become even worse.

In addition, if you want to realize smoother road conditions through self-driving cars, you can't do it without the support of V2X technology. Only with the interconnection between vehicles and pedestrians, between vehicles and vehicles, and between vehicles and traffic facilities, can we more accurately control the environment around the vehicle and real-time road conditions.

Flying cars from concept to reality

With the rapid development of science and technology, mankind has a new blueprint for future travel. In order to alleviate the pressure of urban transportation, some companies have set their sights on three-dimensional space. As a result, flying cars have become a direction of exploration.

This year's Beijing Auto Show, by the Peng car chairman He Xiaopeng and Peng car *** with investment, holding aviation high-tech innovative enterprises Peng Huitian official debut. At the scene, the first generation of Roc Huitian's aircraft - traveler T1 also unveiled the mystery. It adopts a very futuristic design, the overall structure includes bracket, seat and 8 propellers. At present, Xiaopeng Huitian's Traveler T1 is still the first-generation exploratory version, and it is expected that the second-generation version will be launched in the middle of 2021, at which time it will provide experiential flight services, allow two people to ride at the same time, support intelligent interactions and low-altitude map navigation, and take off and land vertically. In terms of safety system, it can fly at 5-25 meters in ultra-low altitude with autopilot.

It has been revealed that Xiaopeng Huitian is currently formulating standards and rules related to aerial autopilot, and is actively involved in the approval of related aerial flights. He Xiaopeng said that future travel should have more multi-dimensional and three-dimensional transportation, so that the problem of holiday traffic jams can be solved.

In addition to Xiaopeng, Geely wholly acquired the U.S. Terrafugia flying car company as early as 2017, and had also shown the TF-X conceptual diagram online, is expected to vertical take-off and landing technology landed in 2023 and is expected to realize the mass production and official release. in September 2019, Geely joined hands with Daimler to the German Volocopter company to make an investment of about 390 million yuan investment in Germany Volocopter, Volocopter's 2X model aircraft test flight in 2019, achieved 2 minutes and 30 seconds to fly 1.5 kilometers, the average flight altitude of about 40 meters. Not only that, Geely Technology Group's Volocopter Changkong Technology Co., Ltd. has also been established, and synchronized with the listing and sale of the new Aoshi X-Chimera25 drone products, but also once again struck the Geely layout of the aeronautical industry "offensive war".

Additionally, the Toyota-backed Japanese startup SkyDrive made its maiden flight of a flying car at the Toyota Proving Ground in August this year, and it is expected that the flying car will be put into production in 2023 and realize full commercialization.

Audi has also joined forces with Italy's Giorgetto Giugiaro to launch an air-to-ground concept car, the Pop.Up?Next, under the umbrella of Airbus's Urban Air Mobility framework. whether it will continue to evolve in the future remains to be seen.

Of course, flying cars are moving from concept to reality, but they still face some challenges if they are to become commonplace. On the technical side, flying cars are currently facing trade-offs in terms of weight and system functionality: if you want to realize aerial flight without affecting the driving experience on the ground, the weight of the car body will greatly affect the flight mileage and maneuverability. If the focus is on flight, ground driving will be subject to many restrictions.

Transportation safety, the current domestic low altitude flight control is relatively strict, even with flying cars can only be driven in a small number of areas. In addition, taking into account the city of high-rise buildings, low-altitude driving is also a security risk.

The traffic jam, is a kind of urban disease

There is no doubt that traffic congestion is a social problem. In the process of urbanization, resources and population continue to concentrate in the city, and with the increase in population density, a series of problems are presented. Traffic congestion, naturally, is also a manifestation of "urban disease".

At present, cutting-edge technologies such as self-driving cars and flying cars are important means to improve transportation efficiency. From the point of view of technology application, self-driving technology should pay more attention to how to meet the needs of safe, comfortable, efficient and intelligent use of the car. Self-driving cars can circumvent the irregular and unstable operation of human driving with the help of artificial intelligence, and achieve more optimized urban traffic through mobile interconnection and big data processing, so as to alleviate the problem of traffic congestion. The commercialization and promotion of flying cars is still in the theoretical stage, and the inconsistency and uncertainty of the whole industry also determines that the industry specification of flying cars may still be a few years before it can be really established.

If we stand in the practical application of the point of view, at present the more ideal program is the self-driving car + **** enjoy the travel mode, the combination of the two means that many consumers do not have to buy a private car, with a more innovative and more intelligent way of travel to better meet the transformation of urban transportation and functionality of the construction.

In addition, to effectively solve the problem of traffic congestion in large cities, government regulation and urban planning are also quite important. Creating an intelligent and intensive public **** transportation system and improving the quality of everyone are all directions that the whole society needs to **** together.

In the above premise, the beautiful vision of self-driving cars and flying cars may be more likely to be realized.

This article comes from the author of the automobile home car family number, does not represent the views of the automobile home position.