Atlanta unveiled a stretch of ?smart? road Thursday that could help usher in an era of driverless cars and transform the city?s transportation infrastructure.

The North Avenue Smart Corridor Project ? which stretches from the Coca-Cola headquarters and Georgia Tech to the Ponce City Market ? includes adaptive traffic signals, high-definition cameras and other technology that advocates say will improve safety and speed traffic on a busy east-west street.

Don?t expect to see fully autonomous vehicles driving down North Avenue any time soon ? there are still technological and legal hurdles to overcome. But if all goes well, North Avenue will become a model street for Atlanta and the nation.

?Atlanta will become a national leader in the smart-cities movement,? Mayor Kasim Reed said at a ceremony at Ponce City Market Thursday.

The $3 million project brought several new technologies to the 2.3-mile stretch of North Avenue. Among them:

? Adaptive traffic signals, which monitor traffic flow and can make real-time adjustments. By allowing the lights to adjust their timing as needed, the new technology could cut commute times along a corridor that carries nearly 29,000 vehicles a day in some spots.

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