Pittsburgh is using AI to manage traffic

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In urban areas, drivers spend 40 percent of their time idling in traffic, he added.

The big reason is that today’s traffic signals are dumb. Smith is developing smart artificial-intelligence-fueled traffic signals that adapt to changing traffic conditions on the fly. His startup Surtrac is commercializing the technology.

In pilot tests in Pittsburgh, the smart traffic-management system has gotten impressive results. It reduced travel time by 25 percent and idling time by over 40 percent

...The Surtrac system instead relies on computerized traffic lights coordinating closely with each other. Radar sensors and cameras at each light detect traffic. Sophisticated AI algorithms use that data to build a timing plan “that moves all the vehicles it knows about through the intersection in the most efficient way possible,” Smith says. The computer also sends the data to traffic intersections downstream so they can plan ahead.

Unlike other smart traffic-management systems, such as one used in Los Angeles, Smith emphasized that this one is decentralized. So each signal makes its own timing decisions, making it a truly smart system.

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