Amazon has been awarded a patent for a technology that would enable driverless cars and trucks to navigate reversible lanes. The patent, which was originally filed in November 2015 and granted yesterday, reveals that the company is working on not only driverless cars but the infrastructure that would support them. It deals with the problem of how autonomous vehicles would navigate reversible lanes, which are typically used in US cities to ease congestion through changing the direction of traffic flow. When navigating a reversible lane, drivers are alerted to the change of direction through overhead signals and lights notifying which lanes are open or closed to driving or turning. "Autonomous vehicles may not have information about reversible lanes when approaching a portion of roadway that has reversible lanes," states the document.

Amazon is working on self-driving cars, according to a new patent that deals with the complex task of navigating reversible lanes. The patent, filed in November 2015 and granted on Tuesday, covers the problem of how to deal with reversible lanes, which change direction depending on the bulk of the traffic flow. This type of lane is typically used to manage commuter traffic into and out of cities, particularly in the US. Autonomous vehicles, the patent warns, "may not have information about reversible lanes when approaching a portion of a roadway that has reversible lane", leading to a worst-case scenario of them driving headfirst into oncoming traffic. More generally, the inability to plan for reversible lanes means cars and trucks can't optimise their routes by getting into the correct lane well in advance, something that could otherwise prove to be one of the benefits of self-driving cars.