World’s First AI Traffic Light Technology Gets Green Light
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
WASHINGTON, DC, June 28, 2018 — Green Light, a technology startup based in Washington, DC, has secured an official agreement with a Latin American capital city to conduct a pilot of Green Light’s new artificial intelligence technology that turns “dumb traffic lights into smart ones.” The agreement to hold a demonstrative pilot of 6 intersections will serve not only as a showcase for both the city of Asuncion but for other cities as well.
The world needs traffic management solutions that are fully adaptive and dynamic in real-time. They need to be able to respond to actual traffic conditions which fluctuate moment to moment and at Green Light, we have assembled a team of premier AI traffic programmers and veteran traffic engineers to create a truly smart system that will reduce pollution, congestion, frustration and ware on infrastructure.
The company’s founder and CEO is James Henry of Washington DC. Henry, a serial entrepreneur, recruited top scientists from the University of Stockholm and some veteran traffic engineers from Transport for London. Henry aims to disrupt the traffic industry by innovating in two significant ways:
1. Turn dumb traffic lights into smart ones using cameras and video recognition software to respond dynamically in real-time.
2. Allow each intersection to communicate with one another to form an intelligent network that adapts system-wide.
Company officials, backed by members of the scientific community, believe pollution, traffic and fuel consumption will reduce as a result
Traffic is a problem everyone faces worldwide. The global population is exploding, and urban centers are turning into parking lots. The solutions offered are far too primitive to meet the needs of cities today. Municipalities struggle to keep up by building more roads, but more people rush to use them, and conditions worsen, known as the Downs-Thomson Paradox. Municipal expenditure on traffic management globally is currently in the mid 20B figure and is expected to grow to the low $70B by 2022, at a CAGR of 21%.
The state of traffic management technology is stuck in the 1940s. Legacy systems on the market are archaic and have only made slight improvements of static set schedules. Most cities have installed a hodgepodge of hardware from a multitude of companies. There is little to no adaption at the intersection level. Traffic management systems are static and not dynamic. Intersections do not communicate with one another. Despite the heavy use of the words “intelligent” and “smart” in the marketing literature in the industry, the traffic management systems are only as smart as their schedules that are just programmed a few times every decade. Over the past 20 years, cities have become congested and gridlocked, and innovation is needed. Politicians are under increasing pressure to find new solutions to traffic.
“The world needs traffic management solutions that are fully adaptive and dynamic in real-time,” said James. “They need to be able to respond to actual traffic conditions which fluctuate moment to moment and at Green Light, we have assembled a team of premier AI traffic programmers and veteran traffic engineers to create a truly smart system that will reduce pollution, congestion, frustration and ware on infrastructure,” said James.
This intersection by intersection solution responds to conditions on demand in a decentralized dynamic fashion. Each intersection decides what’s best for itself and also communicates with the those around it to form an integrated brain. By acting as an intelligent network, the more intersections that have our solution, the smarter the system and the more perfect the traffic signal timings become.
Green Light has the following three value propositions:
1) Municipalities will lower pollution, travel time, idle time, citizen frustration and infrastructure overhead. Scientific studies at the University of Toronto and University of Pennsylvania Pittsburg have indicated that a true real-time solution can do the following:
· Idle time can be reduced by up to 40%
· Travel time can be reduced by up to 25%
· Pollution can be reduced up to 20%
· Productivity will be increased as workers can regain time lost in traffic jams.
· Reduce pollution (ESG)
· Reduction is traffic-related injuries/deaths
· Reduce infrastructure costs
Once the pilot implementation is nearing completion Green Light will begin outreach to Multilateral institutions such as World Bank, IMF, IDB and IFC to communicate commitment promoting ESG pillars. This outreach will bolster attention and credibility of our solution. Funding may be possible from Multilaterals for installations in developing countries with urgent traffic problems and limited financial resources.