Among the glitz and glamour of its neon-infused casinos, restaurants, and live show venues, the Las Vegas strip and surrounding Clark County, feature something you may not have noticed — raised dots in place of traditional painted lane markers. These alternative lane identifiers, often referred to as Botts’ dots, provide some advantages over painted lines, such as enhanced visibility, greater service life, and a bump that you feel physically, indicating you’re drifting out of the lane.
Each raised dot features a reflector positioned in such as way that vehicle headlights help make the markers more visible. This added functionality comes in handy, especially when adverse weather affects the area. Southern Nevada experiences severe thunderstorms and periods of fierce winds over 50 mph, which can blow desert sand and dust through the Las Vegas Valley, making it more challenging for drivers to see road markers.
These markers aren’t only present in Clark County, Nevada. One southern California city installed Bott’s Dots to stop street takeovers a few years ago. However, you don’t see them everywhere, and one reason for that is snow. Las Vegas rarely sees snowfall, so there isn’t a need for snow plows to clear the road. This is important because, although they hold up well in most cases, Botts’ dots are no match for a big plow blade, which could easily pluck them from the pavement. However, one concern that many drivers may have is the question of whether or not advanced automotive safety tech and autonomous software can identify these dots properly.
Can driver assistance systems and self-driving cars identify Botts’ dots?
Back in 2017, California officials were talking about removing the dots and replacing them with traditional painted lines consistent with other regions of the country. While driver assistance systems could be programmed to recognize the bumps, doing so was seen as another hurdle for the emerging technology. In fact, according to Texas A&M University’s Paul Carlson, who spoke to the Sacramento Bee some years ago, “All (highway departments) are asking, ‘What do we need to do with our infrastructure to accommodate those technologies?'” Despite developers’ efforts to put additional resources into detecting these Botts’ dots, initially, it didn’t work very well…