Influence of a slowdown warning system on a multi-vehicle stream

In this paper, we discuss the concept of a slow-down warning system in automobiles. If a driver on a highway decelerates suddenly or progresses abnormally slowly (thereby posing a hazard to the vehicles behind him), then, with such a system, all the cars behind him are provided information of this, near simultaneously. This advance information gives the drivers additional time to react, in anticipation of an impending slow-down, and this helps to alleviate collisions. Furthermore, it is seen that even if only a fraction of the cars in a platoon are equipped with such a system, this can still be sufficient to alleviate crashes even in the unequipped cars. This partial equipage also has the ability to considerably weaken the shock waves that would otherwise have occurred, if all cars were unequipped. ©2005 AACC.