AI And Traffic Lights

Everyday there is more in the news about how quickly AI is developing and all the amazing things that it can do, although it is worrying some people.

But here is what I think is the most important question about AI. When is all of this wonderful technology going to get applied to traffic lights? Ever since I first read about AI I have been waiting for it to be applied to traffic lights.

Traffic lights are wasteful beyond belief. How many times have you seen a dozen cars lined up at a red light but no cars on the green light side? Can you imagine all the time that is wasted at red lights that should be green? How much fuel does this waste and how much does the resulting exhaust contribute to global warming?

Traffic lights are an example of what I refer to as being "technologically forward but system-backward". We develop a new technology and implement a basic system to manage it. We make progress in the technology but it is limited by the fact that we are still using the same primitive system as at the beginning. There is so much discussion nowadays about "smart" technology but traffic lights are about as dumb as it can get.

What if the traffic light could see or sense the cars, including the indicators as to which way the car was turning, and then make the logical decision as to which way should be red and which way green? There would be no more unnecessary waiting at red lights.

The fuel saved would not only be due to the elimination of idling but also the car's momentum is lost when braking for a red light and must be regained, at the expense of fuel, when the light turns green. The reduction in stops that must be made would also save drivers money because brakes would have to be replaced less frequently.

Technology is wonderful, until we get dependent on it and it doesn't work. But if this AI system ever breaks down, it would be relatively simple to implement a mechanism that would shift it back to the automated system that we have now. The AI system could be programmed to automatically turn to a green light for emergency vehicles.

This should have been done already. There are AI-powered cameras and sensors watching everything that we do. When is this going to be applied to traffic lights to eliminate unnecessary stopping and waiting?