We were stuck in traffic a few times over the holiday. It’s a lot easier than it used to be, now that my kids are older. With little kids, traffic jams are horrible. The baby’s squalling, the toddler’s got to go to the bathroom, well, you know. But in the future, we may be able to avoid traffic jams. Scientists are working on a new technology for cars, based on . . . ants.

According to Discover Magazine, scientists threw roadblocks in front of leaf-cutter ants who then changed their leaf-gathering strategies to bypass the roadblock. The ants leave a trail of pheromones to show their fellow ants the best route back to the nest. By working together, they reinforce the trail using what entomologists call “distributed intelligence.”

Other scientists are working on copying ant ingenuity by using something called Inter-Vehicle communication, where cars send out signals to other cars when they slow down quickly—say, when entering a traffic jam. Other drivers close to the jam will know to slow down, and they in turn can send the message to vehicles to avoid the route altogether.

Joseph Berger, Bugwood.org

Here’s a pretty cool National Geographic video showing leaf cutter ants at work.