Amazon's intelligent road to advance driverless cars
US tech giant's patent helps autonomous vehicles safely and quickly navigate roads with greater precision than current techAmazon has been caught patenting new plans for an intelligent road that will pave the way for the safe use of fully autonomous vehicles.
The plans, submitted to the US Patent Office earlier his week, reveal that the Seattle-based tech giant has developed unique infrastructure that helps driverless vehicles navigate and identify the correct lane for their journey.
The advanced road infrastructure instructs vehicles to switch lanes based on their speed, destination and surrounding traffic conditions.
Amazon's plans could also see fully autonomous vehicles travel against other oncoming traffic without fear the on-board sensors triggering the brakes or, worse, accidentally changing lanes and causing a head-on collision.
If a collision has blocked the highway, the road can automatically filter cars clear of the obstacles and create a path automatically for emergency vehicles to reach the scene of an accident.
The new system works by allowing the road surface's embedded sensors and management software to communicate directly to the vehicles using the highway.
According to BusinessInsider, which discovered the patents, it's thought Amazon's interest in advancing self-driving capability could be to help it replace its army of delivery drivers around the globe with a fleet of autonomous trucks and vans to help it ship goods bought through its site.
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