For a few decades now, certain emergency vehicles like police, ambulances, and fire trucks have had the ability to directly control or influence traffic lights in order to cut down on response time. Depending on the kinds of systems and sensors in place, an emergency vehicle can either send a direct signal to a light to keep the lane flowing, or the sensor can detect flashing emergency lights to keep the signal green. This is very important, as emergency response vehicles can’t be waiting around for lights to change.
However, as automotive technology progresses, we may find that even civilian vehicles have the ability to influence lights directly, at least to an extent. Using a combination of sensors and localized Wi-Fi signals, special smart traffic lights could temporarily connect right to a sufficiently advanced vehicle like an EV. This connection would both inform the light that the vehicle is present and waiting at the stop line and inform the driver of exactly how long it’ll be before the signal changes.
Automotive manufacturers have been tinkering with this notion since the late 2010s, and if it were implemented, it would go a long way toward optimizing the flow of traffic. Of course, it can’t work until every single car on the road is either an electric vehicle or at least equipped with compatible technology, but that’s just another step in the ever-growing automotive field.
