Soon, cities all over the country could be using artificial Intelligence in a new way to streamline traffic.
According to CBS News, the Project Green Light is being used by Google to improve traffic flow in Seattle. The system uses the Maps database, AI, and the company’s Maps to optimize traffic signals and make suggestions to the city engineers.
According to Christopher Alexander, Chief Analytics Officer at Pioneer Development Group, this system could be the best use of AI as it is currently constituted. Alexander noted that to manage traffic, “you have to sift through a lot of data in order to find patterns”, something AI can do with machine learning.
TOP 10 WEIRDEST INNOVATIONS FOR 2023
The Seattle Space Needle is shown with the downtown skyline and Mount Rainier as the backdrop. (Donald Miralle/Getty images for RocknRoll marathon)
Alexander stated that AI capabilities could replicate dozens analysts who would normally perform such tasks and make constant adjustments as necessary. Alexander said that it was important to have a human vetting the work.
Google’s Juliet Rothenberg spearheaded the program in Seattle. She told CBS that a simple shift of “few second” could result in major improvements in efficiency.
Officials in the city say that so far, this plan has been successful, clearing up annoying traffic congestion.
Laura Wojcicki is an engineer with the Seattle Department of Transportation. She told CBS News that they had moved a street four seconds to the east-west for a certain time of day. This helped reduce some of this stop-and go traffic.
CyberGuy.com: AI can help improve traffic light efficiency
WHAT ARE ARTIFICIAL INTERVENTION (AI)?
Google offers the service free of charge and plans to expand it to thousands more cities.
Phil Siegel, founder of the Center for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation (CAPTRS), agreed that AI for traffic management was ideal. However, he pointed out that this technology “has been available for a very long time.”
“In reality, Google’s new initiatives include idling times and the carbon footprint. Traffic management systems have become quite sophisticated. “The most important thing about this is that it’s completely free”, Siegel said to Fox News Digital.
Project Green Light is being tested in 70 intersections around the globe, including 13 cities. The report states that the program impacts 30 million car trips each month, and Google believes it can reduce stop and go traffic by as much as 30%.
Google’s headquarters in Mountain View (California)
Click Here to Download the FOX News App
Wojcicki stated that “it means a great deal for drivers and also for emissions.”
Staff editor of The Federalist Samuel Mangold Lenett says that such AI uses are “inevitable” but also noted the importance of continuing to account for “human behaviour.”
Mangold-Lenett, a Fox News Digital reporter, said that the U.S. infrastructure would be integrated with AI. However this does not mean that it will make life easier or better. “We know that drivers are irrational behind the wheel. There’s a chance this is a quixotic effort at social engineering and management.”