Green Light is a Google’s project designed to help reduce the time you spend at traffic lights thanks to the power of AI. While its main motivations are environmental, its effects can make your daily time behind the wheel less frustrating.
Google is implementing AI everywhere and it’s no secret to anyone. The company is betting heavily on AI-powered features to offer solutions and services, being a pioneer in the smartphone industry. Green Light, a project to significantly reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from cars at traffic light stops, is another example of this.
Google’s Green Light project is helping reduce traffic light stops with AI
Cars stopping at traffic lights are among the main daily sources of greenhouse gas emissions. With this in mind, Google developed the tool that, after an AI-powered evaluation of multiple parameters, provides recommendations that can help to effectively reduce such stops. Green Light takes into account parameters such as traffic levels, flow patterns, frequency of stops at traffic lights, nearby intersections, and more.
The Green Light’s recommendations are intended for city engineers. They are realistic and easily applicable, requiring nothing beyond what is already available at the traffic light stop. For example, tweaking a red light duration at certain times where the AI detected that there are usually low levels of traffic.
Google’s AI-powered suggestions to reduce traffic light stops are under testing in multiple cities. The current list of more than 12 cities includes names like Seattle, Boston, Rio de Janeiro, and Bengaluru. The company intends to make the list larger in the near future. Google also offers a panel of experts dedicated to evaluating the real impact of the Green Light’s suggestions in each city. So, there is a quantifiable way to measure their effectiveness.
According to current data, the project has helped a 30% reduction in traffic light stops. This translates to around a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions at those intersections. Green Light is another proof of the huge positive impact that AI tools can have on everyday life, even if you don’t notice it.