PTV takes lessons from logistics software to help test AV behaviour

Some people in the transportation industry may be reluctant to treat travellers as goods that need to be shipped from point A to point B. The traffic software engineers at PTV Group are not some of those people. According to Jongsun Won, the lessons he and his colleagues have learned from years of creating logistics software are extremely useful in the new age of autonomous vehicles. “In an autonomous vehicle, people are essentially the goods that are being transported around a city,” Won said. “There are
June 7, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
© F11photo | Dreamstime.com
Some people in the transportation industry may be reluctant to treat travellers as goods that need to be shipped from point A to point B. The traffic software engineers at 3264 PTV Group are not some of those people. According to Jongsun Won, the lessons he and his colleagues have learned from years of creating logistics software are extremely useful in the new age of autonomous vehicles.


“In an autonomous vehicle, people are essentially the goods that are being transported around a city,” Won said. “There are definite lessons to be learned as cities try to figure out how driverless cars are going to behave.”

PTV gives cities a platform they can use to test out different traffic scenarios, so they can identify potential problem areas such as congested intersections and merge lanes. One thing that transportation officials are interested in today, is how autonomous vehicles are going to change traffic patterns—for the better or for the worse.

“The fact is, no-one knows how autonomous vehicles are going to impact traffic. PTV helps collect, study and analyse pertinent data that can provide insight into these behaviours.”

Booth 235

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • 3M sees big potential in ITS sector
    December 16, 2013
    Having re-entered the ITS market, 3M is busy shaping the future technology for vehicle detection, tolling and parking, as Colin Sowman discovers. Having sold off its Opticom business in 2007, 3M effectively re-entered the ITS market last year paying $110 million for Federal Signal Technology Group (FSTech) – but why?
    Read More
  • ITS innovations – a change for the better?
    May 5, 2016
    Josef Czako takes a look at what the future developments may hold for both the transport sector and society. As the dust of the 2015 World Congress in Bordeaux settles, we can begin to see more clearly some of the most important future innovations in ITS are starting to be linked together: mobility as a service (MaaS), mobility pricing and autonomous vehicles. They all are based on global trends, like digitalisation, automation and servitisation.
    Read More
  • 15-minute cities: Path to dystopia or storm in a side street?
    June 5, 2023
    Urban planners and transportation professionals will need to address wild accusations about the motives behind 15-minute cities - and relevant criticisms too - if the concept is to scale to its potential
    Read More
  • Cold efficiency
    July 24, 2012
    Tools to support operational decisions in winter maintenance can remove subjectivity and increase efficiency; Vaisala's Danny Johns talks about latest developments Even the presence of trees at the roadside can have an effect on temperature An effective Road Weather Information System (RWIS) network can save a local road authority or jurisdiction tens of thousands of dollars or Euros'-worth of labour and consumables in a single night. Get those winter maintenance operations right over just three or four nig
    Read More

Highlighted Content