From the look of the article the google maps solution is using lagged traffic flow data as a basis of directing waves of traffic. I think in practice, if this had a large uptake rate, by directing cars to areas with low traffic rates, you would inadvertantly cause traffic jams even though you send "waves" to other areas in a subsequent time period.

I like the idea of a traffic utopia where cars are directed around in the most efficient way, However i think that this can only realistically work with open information sharing, (not competition) between the major players i.e. Garmin, tomtom etc to increase take up rates.