Revolutionary changes in the automotive industry will have a transformative effect on street lighting as we've known it over the past century. By 2040, perfection of autonomous driverless vehicle (AV) technology could result in 75 percent of the vehicles on the road being Level 4 (full self-driving automation), according to a 2012 prediction by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The emergence of AVs will have huge implications for public safety. Even when only 10 percent of vehicles on the road are AVs, crashes may be reduced by 50 percent, and Google estimates that 90 percent of roadway accidents will be eliminated once AVs dominate the road. As more AVs hit the road, the lighting industry will also be impacted. When 90 percent of nighttime roadway crashes have been eliminated by technological advances in vehicle radar, sonar, infrared and laser guidance, together with sensors for braking, there will no longer be a need to illuminate roadways, tunnels, bridges and toll plazas to prevent vehicles from crashing into one another. Vehicles will instead be networked and able to operate much more efficiently than our un-net-worked cars of today.
展开▼
