On a stretch of I-24 in Tennessee that is newly equipped to serve as a testbed for intelligent transportation technologies, 100 vehicles with AI-driven adaptive cruise control will join the morning rush hour next week so that researchers can assess whether cars directed by AI can help to ease stop-and-go traffic jams by altering the behavior of human drivers.

The testing is being conducted by the CIRCLES Consortium, which consists of researchers from partners including Vanderbilt University, the University of California, Berkeley, Rutgers University-Camden and Temple University, plus participation from Nissan North America, Toyota, General Motors and the Tennessee Department of Transportation. It will take place from November 14-18 in the Nashville-Davidson County area on a four-mile section of I-24 outfitted with around 300 ultra-high-definition cameras mounted on poles every 600 feet, which produce images that are “converted into a digital model of how every vehicle behaves with unparalleled detail” …