Empirical test for cellular automaton models of traffic flow

Based on a detailed microscopic test scenario motivated by recent empirical studies of single-vehicle data, several cellular automaton models for traffic flow are compared. We find three levels of agreement with the empirical data: (1) models that do not reproduce even qualitatively the most important empirical observations, (2) models that are on a macroscopic level in reasonable agreement with the empirics, and (3) models that reproduce the empirical data on a microscopic level as well. Our results are not only relevant for applications, but also shed light on the relevant interactions in traffic flow.