Is A 4th Traffic Light Color Coming To New York?

Nothing is confirmed, so calm down. A concept is making waves on the internet proposing changing the traffic light from three colors, to four here in New York and beyond. Here's what we know on this concept:

Traffic Technology Today shared an article on a new concept for traffic lights that has been developed after a study into AV's. What in the world does Audio and Video have to do with traffic lights? Well, nothing. That's not what it means:

What is an AV? In this case AV stands for "automated vehicles". Traffic Technology Today says that the fourth light "would enable autonomous vehicles to help control traffic flow".

What Would The Colors Be And Mean?

Red equals stop, yellow means slow down and prepare to stop, green would mean go and white...well, white would mean that automated cars are "dictating the traffic flow" and human drivers should follow the automated vehicle in front of them.

So robot cars would call the shots on the road?

The researchers first introduced a ‘white phase’ traffic intersection concept back in 2020. However, that initial concept relied on a lot of technology and AV's to work together, which didn't at the time.

“We’ve improved on that concept, and this paper outlines a white phase concept that relies on distributed computing – effectively using the computing resources of all the AVs to dictate traffic flow,” Hajbabaie says. “This is both more efficient, and less likely to fall prey to communication failures. For example, if there’s an interruption or time lag in communication with the traffic light, the distributed computing approach would still be able to handle traffic flow smoothly.”"

 

What Are Your Thoughts?

Again, WE AREN'T SAYING THIS IS HAPPENING HERE IN NEW YORK. But, if it did, what are your thoughts on it? Text us on our station app and let us know.

The AV technology isn't even fully developed, or affordable enough, for everyone to use. This concept might make people angry in like 2054, but honestly in 2024 we can listen, learn, and maybe laugh.