News

Are Ants The Answer To Worldwide Traffic Issues?

naturephotoHave you ever sat for a couple of hours and just watched ants work? Unless you have a government grant or just no life at all, probably not. They’re actually quite fascinating according to The Discovery Channel. They (the ants, not TDC) can carry 10-50 times their own weight, get more done before dawn than you do in a month, can fill out 1040-EZ forms without the worksheets and never, ever get caught in traffic jams.

That last ant fact is from the research of one of those grant-funded ant watchers who spent the last 8 years watching the tiny insects’ behavior. Audrey Dussutour of the University of Sydney, observed that even on a path as slim as a tree branch, leafcutter ants optimized their going and coming traffic with no entomological pileups.

And how is this supposed to help you during gridlock Monday morning? For starters, slow down. Apparently, not being in such a hurry to get somewhere could actually speed up the flow of human traffic. Dussutour observed that when faster-moving ants not carrying a load got behind slower, load-bearing ants, they chose patience instead of passing the pokey ant, which actually allowed the overall colony to move faster.

Which leads to the part that interests us most. Researchers are using algorythms developed from the ant behaviors to develop a multi-car navigation system that could one day lead to those driverless cars we’ve been hearing about for 50 years. Let’s just hope that whatever they come up with, our robocars come equipped with anti-magnifying glass beam protection, otherwise we’re all fried.

by Chris Tutor of AutoBlog
Source: Wired Science

R
  • R
    Red
  • Feb 9, 2009
Unfortunately, if, we will still be in control of our own vehicles in the future~ our humanly natural selfish behaviour wouldn't be much help at all..
How the hell slower moving ant/car in front lead to faster moving colony/car pack???
V
  • V
    vincent
  • Feb 9, 2009
Driverless cars???? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Seriously it would be a disaster. How about motorsports? Will it be spared?
N
  • N
    netmatrix
  • Feb 9, 2009
Its crazy to compare ants and humans. Totally different. Here are the big difference.

- One tree is like a state in a country; We are stuck in a continent.
- One tree branch is a 10 lane highway; Our biggest is only 5 in one direction.;
- They go to work with one motive; We go to work with individual motive.
- They are governed where they need to go; We get bored easily and divert elsewhere.
- 1 species at a time, war is like planetary scale; Same species but we kill each other unnecessasily.

The scientific research is mainly to task cars not to create jams. In this case cars that are not driven by humans. Cue the cars in the Movie "Minority Report" & "IRobot".
J
  • J
    jun
  • Feb 9, 2009
As long as malaysians can still afford cars, traffic jams are here to stay.
The answer doesn't lie after the problem, the answer lies before the problem starts.
T
  • T
    tis
  • Feb 9, 2009
What a useless article.

Only 1 rules to overcome traffic jam. Impose 'minimum speed limit' for respective lanes. RTD can't think bout this? Oh please. There's a lot of smart person inside.

Slow drivers/Road hoggers please use the last lane or take public transport or just sleep at home. You will make a better Malaysia. Trust me.
M
  • M
    markIItrd
  • Feb 10, 2009
sometimes we are scared about others attitude without screening back self attitude...
K
  • K
    ken yeang
  • Feb 10, 2009
In the ant colonies, they do not have blur-blur Auntie drivers and drivers using handphone while driving.....
S
  • S
    skazareth
  • Feb 10, 2009
markIItrd on February 10th, 2009 12:20 am
sometimes we are scared about others attitude without screening back self attitude…

well said..
E
  • E
    ephique74
  • Feb 10, 2009
they never see ants having traffic jam. heheheheh~ ants quickly go crazy when their road is blocked. you should see the chaos made, by me.
J
  • J
    junbecks
  • Feb 11, 2009
tis
its not only lane hoggers and slow drivers, but sudden lane changers.

malaysians dont leave a two car distance bumper to bumper on the highways.
Hence when someone wants to change lanes early, he/she cant, because theres no space to slip in quickly.

mr-lane-changer then slows down creating a domino effect.
J