Re Pittsburgh's new artificially intelligent stoplights could mean no more pointless idling

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Bob Frankston* <Bob19-0501 () bobf frankston com>
Date: Sunday, October 23, 2016
Subject: Re Pittsburgh's new artificially intelligent stoplights could mean
no more pointless idling
To: dave () farber net, ip <ip () listbox com>
Cc: John Gilmore <gnu () toad com>


Went to https://www.surtrac.net/. This seems to be a CMU research project
focused on congested city roads. There is a longer article at
https://goo.gl/MJ2xbq which also mentions the Pittsburgh/Uber efforts.



It would be nice if drivers (or their vehicles) could get access to this
data so they can intelligently plan their trips instead of being corralled.
That might already part of the plan. Will Waze start gaming these lights?





*From:* Dave Farber [mailto:farber () gmail com
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','farber () gmail com');>]
*Sent:* Sunday, October 23, 2016 18:41
*To:* ip <ip () listbox com <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ip () listbox com');>>
*Subject:* [IP] Re Pittsburgh's new artificially intelligent stoplights
could mean no more pointless idling






Begin forwarded message:

*From:* John Gilmore <gnu () toad com
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','gnu () toad com');>>
*Date:* October 23, 2016 at 6:19:41 PM EDT
*To:* dave () farber net <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','dave () farber net');>
*Cc:* "ip" <ip () listbox com <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ip () listbox com');>>
*Subject:* *Re: [IP] Pittsburgh's new artificially intelligent stoplights
could mean no more pointless idling*

Steel City now boasts 50 intersections whose stoplights are running

artificial intelligence software known as Surtrac that reduces wait

times on empty or lightly-traveled roads.



Since Surtrac was first introduced in 2012, the Rapid Flow team

estimates the AI stoplights have cut emissions by 21%, travel times

by 25%, and idling times by 40%.


Clearly there is a disconnect here for numerate readers.  You can't
improve any emissions, travel times or idling times on empty roads.
There aren't any emissions, travel times, or idling times there.

And on lightly traveled roads, even a massive improvement there only
improves overall travel by e.g. 1%, since most of the traffic is not
on lightly traveled roads.  So they are either mis-describing the
method, or presenting bogus statistics.

It's been pretty standard for decades in many cities to use
sensor-driven stoplights that keep the main road flowing unless and
until a few cars stack up waiting to cross the main road.  That can be
done with artificial stupidity, with no need to deploy the expensive
artificial intelligence buzzword.


the other stoplights use a proprietary set of algorithms to adjust

their timing accordingly.


Proprietary is not the same as better; usually the reverse.


The magic of Surtrac is that it bundles each stoplight into an

intelligent network "that moves all the vehicles it knows about

through the intersection in the most efficient way possible," Rapid

Flow CEO Steve Smith said ...


Yeah, it's "magic" and there is NO more efficient way to do it other
than to buy their proprietary software.  They have found the one
absolutely most efficient way -- there are no improvements that can be
made to their system.  Let me guess, their CEO came up through the
sales department, not through engineering.

   John

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