Even without higher-level coordination, independent autonomous agents on the road could still do a lot better than human drivers in at least two ways: a) the ja

Even without higher-level coordination, independent autonomous agents on the road could still do a lot better than human drivers in at least two ways: a) the jam-busting behaviour described elsewhere on this thread could be built in, avoiding the counterproductive and unnecessary stop-and-go pattern that most human drivers seem to fall into, and b) even when traffic unavoidably comes to a standstill, a self-driving car could have near-instant reaction time on stopping and starting, meaning that the wave propagation would be much faster. This second point is basically saying that if there's a pileup, yes the whole roadway will stop while it's cleared, but the moment a lane opens up, autonomous cars will be able to more efficiently and immediately use it to get the whole jam moving forward.