Skip to main content

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

  • VDOT chooses StreetLight Data for on-demand traffic intelligence
    January 22, 2018
    The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has selected StreetLight Data (SLD) to provide on-demand traffic and transportation intelligence. It aims to enable local and state planning agencies to transform Big Data from their mobile devices into useful mobility metrics via its regional subscription to SLD’s Insight platform. The service also offers unlimited analyses of real-world travel patterns in the state and is available for designated employees and engineering firms.
  • Transit must be accessible to all, says SkedGo
    April 24, 2020
    When it comes to accessibility we need to embrace a more open and collaborative approach to ensure MaaS realises its true potential, says SkedGo’s Sandra Witzel – after all, a billion people on the planet have a disability
  • Do buses need subsidies in congestion charging areas
    June 20, 2016
    David Crawford takes a look at the debate surrounding bus subsidies. Subsidies for public transport are a well-known and frequently-used policy tool directed at reducing the high environmental and social costs of peak-period traffic congestion. But at the end of last year the Swedish Centre for Transport Studies published a working paper entitled ‘Should buses still be subsidised in Stockholm?’ This concluded that the subsidy levels currently being applied in Stockholm could be nearly halved by setting bus
  • Sensys & Verizon partner on intersections
    June 6, 2018
    Sensys Networks is here at ITS America Detroit to highlight solutions to address intersection safety - 40% of crashes, 50% of serious collisions, and 20% of fatalities occur in intersections. Unfortunately, many cities currently rely solely on historical crash data, hardly a systematic way to analyse and manage potentially harmful traffic situations. To help increase intersection safety, Sensys Networks is automating accurate and actionable safety data, and teaming with Verizon to do so. SensTraffic, the