In Germany, an AI will control traffic lights to manage road traffic

The town of Bad Hersfeld would like to leave a artificial intelligence control its network of traffic lights in the event of an emergency. The aim is to enable the services concerned to circulate as quickly as possible and to reach places ofaccident in less than 10 minutes.

First, the idea is that a artificial intelligence can both calculate and recommend the fastest route, but also intervene directly on traffic by playing on traffic lights, in order to give priority to firefighters. To do this, a multitude of traffic data must be analyzed, in real time, in order to be able to help the emergency services reach their goal as quickly as possible, while playing on the management of the traffic lights present on their route. The risk, however, is to create traffic jams, which the algorithms will obviously not fail to avoid, if possible.

An idea proposed in France

To achieve this, a central traffic light control system had to be installed. The city is launching a trial period this summer with firefighters to measure the effectiveness of this project before possibly extending it to other services. It should be noted that this initiative is supported by the government of the Land of Hesse, which hopes that this project will spread and convince other municipalities to do the same.

This is a new step for a city relatively involved in new technologies. For example, the inhabitants of Bad Hersfeld already have the possibility of controlling, via a application mobile, the lighting of certain streets.

It should be noted that in France, the idea of ​​controlling traffic via a artificial intelligence has already been mentioned by the mathematician Cedric Villani, unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Paris. The idea, according to him, was to better streamline the traffic in the capital, using an artificial intelligence that manages traffic lights in real time. An ambitious project, which unfortunately is not yet on the agenda.