Engineer Uses 22 Remote-Controlled LEGO Cars to Create Circular ‘Shockwave’ Traffic Jam

Lori Dorn
March 26, 2026

The engineer behind Brick Technology built a series of 22 remote-controlled LEGO vehicles and placed them on a circular track to see if he could create a “shockwave” traffic jam. This experiment is very similar to Yuki Sugiyama’s 2008 traffic study, which also used 22 cars. Each car was programmed to react as a human driver would.

?In this video, I build a circular road system with 22 LEGO cars to recreate real traffic flow and find out when traffic suddenly breaks down. Each car is programmed to behave like a human driver, reacting to the distance of the car in front by braking and accelerating.

Yuki Sugiyama’s 2008 Traffic Study

Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.