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The manner in which vehicles follow each other on a highway (without passing) and the propagation of disturbances down a line of vehicles has been investigated further. Criteria are derived for both local and asymptotic stability in a chain of vehicles. The influence of next nearest neighbors as well as a statistical theory of stability is discussed. “Acceleration noise” is proposed as a parameter that might be employed to characterize the driver-car-road complex under various conditions. Some preliminary experimental measurements of acceleration noise are discussed.
Herman et al. (Sun,) studied this question.