Patent ID: 8630789

Claim:
A method for synchronizing traffic flow thereby reducing traffic congestion within a system roadway comprising a plurality of roadways, comprising: receiving a re-route plan request from a first vehicle under automated control traveling on a current system roadway, the re-route plan request indicating a new destination; guiding the first vehicle off the current system roadway to a holding area associated with an entry point; maintaining automated control over the first vehicle in the holding area; determining a plurality of actual time slots for a first roadway adjacent to the entry point based on a vehicle size and a set speed limit, wherein the plurality of actual time slots has a flow along the first roadway based on the set speed limit; based on the flow of the plurality of actual time slots, determining that a first actual time slot of the plurality of actual time slots is projected to pass the entry point at a particular time; generating by one or more processing units one or more re-route plans based on the entry point and one or more exit points associated with the new destination; identifying a top priority re-route plan of the one or more re-route plans, wherein the top priority re-route plan comprises at least the first roadway and a second roadway; identifying a plurality of re-route time slots along the top priority re-route plan; identifying a plurality of available re-route time slots along the top priority re-route plan, wherein each available re-route time slot is projected to be available from the entry point to at least one of the one or more exit points along the top priority re-route plan, wherein identifying the plurality of available re-route time slots comprises: identifying a merge point between the first roadway and the second roadway; projecting that at least one re-route time slot will be occupied by a second vehicle on the second roadway at the merge point, wherein the projecting is based at least in part on route plan information for the second vehicle; and excluding the at least one re-route time slot from the plurality of available re-route time slots; identifying a first feasible re-route time slot (FFRRTS) that is calculated to have a lowest projected travel time from among the plurality of available re-route time slots, wherein the FFRRTS corresponds to the first actual time slot of the plurality of actual time slots; and launching the first vehicle into the first actual time slot on the first roadway at the particular time.