Online book-seller Amazon is working on self-driving cars.
A new patent has tipped up which shows that Amazon has written some code to deal with the complex task of navigating reversible lanes.
Filed in November 2015 the patent covers the problem of how to deal with reversible lanes, which change direction depending on the bulk of the traffic flow. This type of lane is typically used to manage commuter traffic mostly in the US.
Autonomous vehicles don?t have information about reversible lanes when approaching a portion of a roadway that has reversible lane and this could mean that they end up driving headfirst into oncoming traffic.
The inability to plan for reversible lanes means cars and trucks can?t optimise their routes by getting into the correct lane well in advance, something that could otherwise prove to be one of the benefits of self-driving cars.
Amazon?s solution to the problem involves a centralised roadway management system that can communicate with multiple self-driving cars to exchange information and coordinate vehicle movement at a large scale.
The patent doesn?t give much away about Amazon?s cunning plans for the self-driving sector, however, but the company has long been rumoured to be working on technology that can augment, or replace, its human drivers.
Self-driving trucks and vans would be a natural progression for the company, which is already working on automating its distribution centres thanks to its purchase of robotics firm Kiva Systems in 2012.
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