Cellular Automata for One-Lane Traffic Flow Modelling: Safety and Automation

In recent years the modelling of traffic flow using methods from statistical physics, especially cellular automata models have allowed simulations of large traffic networks faster than real time. In this paper, we study a probabilistic cellular automaton model for microsimulations of traffic flow of automated vehicles in highways. This model describes single-lane traffic flow on a ring. We study the equilibrium properties by including a parameter of safe distance in the model and calculate the so-called fundamental diagrams (flow vs. density graph) considering parallel dynamics. This is done numerically by computer simulations of the model and by means of an analysis of speed variance.