New ‘Smart’ traffic lights could be introduced to the UK to encourage a safer road network as the computer system prioritises road users, such as ambulances, buses and cyclists to ease the flow.
Motorists in Milton Keynes will be the lucky recipients of the £3million trial period, as 2,500 sensors will begin controlling the traffic network from as early as September.
Cameras are currently used to manually monitor traffic updates and junctions are sequenced but they don’t react to the live congestion.
You know sometimes when you’re driving in the dead of night, you come to a red light at a crossroads and find yourself waiting for what feels like an age for the lights to change? In its most simple and blatant form, this new technology will make sure that won’t happen.
Vivacity Labs are the brains behind all this. Yang Lu, Chief Technology Officer at Vivacity Labs said: ‘There is very limited intelligence to the current management of urban roads.
‘By introducing AI into the camera itself, Vivacity Labs has created a system that accurately identifies and reports road usage, removing the need for cumbersome manual interpretation and significantly reducing the potential for human error.
This lays the groundwork for the smart city of the future, using data flows to guide driverless vehicles to their destination with minimal congestion.
‘It also improves traffic today as it can be linked with existing management systems to keep vulnerable road users, such as cyclists, safe by giving priority at lights, or alter signs to direct traffic away from congestion.’
‘The Innovate UK project will help demonstrate the value of the data our device creates, giving us the basis to offer our system to local municipalities across the world.’
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