Eco Factor: Technology to automatically stop idle car engines at traffic signals.
IBM has filed a patent application for a unique traffic light signal that will be able to automatically stop and start engines of vehicles. The technology has been aimed to increase fuel efficiency of cars at busy intersections. The system will be able to receive position information from vehicles waiting at red lights to determine a queue of vehicles stopped at the signal.
The system will then determine the time left for the lights to go green, and if the time is over a set threshold, the traffic light will then send signals to the vehicle engines to stop them. Similarly when the light goes green a notification will be sent to start the engine to the first vehicle in the queue and a signal will be sent to the second vehicle after a specified time.
The patent application considers that drivers mostly don’t stop the engines at traffic signals, which results in fuel being wasted. The proposed system will gather data from signal clocks, GPS data, traffic load information, cameras and other sensors embedded at the intersections. The communications system may use Wi-Fi technologies, a cellular network or satellite communications.
Via: Discovery News/Physorg
