Ilaria Rosella Pagliaro Google has launched Green Light, a project that uses artificial intelligence to optimize traffic lights, reduce traffic and lower polluting emissions
@Canva
Traffic congestion is a perennial headache drivers must endure, especially in cities like Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, where it would appear bottlenecks could always be part of the landscape, with or without navigation apps such as Google Maps.
Every day, miles of traffic jams blockade our roads; nevertheless, Google has not sat with their hands in their pockets. Its research team took up the task of transforming urban traffic since 2020. Artificial intelligence serving traffic lights optimizes that. This small but powerful innovative idea, now known as Green Light, can reduce congestion, benefit the environment, and-honestly-may give our nervous system a bit of respite!
From dinner table to innovation: the birth of green light
Sometimes, the most revolutionary ideas come not from high-tech laboratories but from casual dinner table conversations. So was the inspiration for Google’s engineer Dotan Emanuel when his wife grumbled about stoplights delaying us in the view of no other traffic. An idea came to his head: Could traffic be better managed? Thus was born the “Green Light” project. With AI, it could optimize the management of traffic lights in large cities, allowing them to reduce superfluous stops and, above all, pollution.
How does Green Light work?
It’s a traffic revolution at the behest of Google Maps and artificial intelligence. If fitted with real-time data, traffic lights could intelligently harmonize such that, when there is no incoming traffic, it remains green for a longer period of time, thus eliminating those multiple stops and starts that add to pollution-and let’s be frank, our growing frustration. Less waiting at lights, smoother motoring on the roads.
Source: Google
