Anyone who has ever visited São Paulo knows that huge traffic jams result in a huge waste of time on a daily basis. While it may seem insoluble at first, the technologies that could contribute to fixing this problem have already emerged, Zappa says.
For instance, Google’s self-driving cars could be part of the solution when they actually take off and become mainstream. While this may not happen for another few years, ‘car trains’ could be adopted faster. Also known as “road trains,” they will let drivers take their eyes of the road and relax on certain road segments.
Although Zappa is usually skeptical when it comes to top-down initiatives, he acknowledges public action could be useful when it comes to traffic prediction. For instance, he presented Rio de Janeiro’s smart operations center as an example to follow. Combined to self-driving vehicles, it could be the solution to the country’s traffic woes.