--- title: "Google’s AI Traffic Light Project May Have Been a Mistake" description: "Google claims that its quietly rolled-out AI traffic signal project streamlines the process and reduces stoplight wait times." date: "2024-08-17" modified: "2024-08-17" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-ai-traffic-lights" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" tags: - "Google" - "google ai" - "the digest" - "traffic" --- # Google’s AI Traffic Light Project May Have Been a Mistake ![Google claims that its quietly rolled-out AI traffic signal project streamlines the process and reduces stoplight wait times.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Signal Change Google claims that its quietly rolled-out AI traffic signal project streamlines the process and reduces stoplight wait times — but it's unclear exactly how helpful it really is. Initially piloted in 2021, [Google's Project Greenlight]() is, as [*Scientific American* explains](), built on an algorithmic model that is supposed to be an alternative to the other two major systems of traffic signal control in use today. While relying on either manually adjusted and fixed light changes or belowground sensors that let the systems know how many cars are at a given intersection, traffic design and control have [long been a headache for urban planners](). Enter Project Green Light, which uses a model known as adaptive or responsive traffic that works with Google Maps data to essentially train the system to guess when traffic gets worse and program stoplights accordingly. Newly [deployed in Boston](), cities like Seattle, Machester, England, and others have used Project Green Light to varying degrees of success. It's not the [worst thing Google's ever plugged](), but anyone who has ever been in a fender-bender knows that sometimes, things happen on the road that can't be predicted by an algorithm. ## Bad Advice While [Boston boasts about its partnership with the project](), officials from other cities that use the Google traffic light AI suggested in interviews with the magazine that its recommendations often fell short of the mark. Representatives from the English city of Manchester, for instance, told *SciAm* that its traffic engineers often ignored Project Green Light's recommendations regularly because they weren't very good. Those same engineers had to manually set stoplights to prioritize things like bus routes, which the algorithms didn't take into account, or to steer commuters away from driving through residential areas. Even Mariam Ali, a spox for Seattle's Department of Transportation who implemented Project Green Light and who generally spoke positively about the software, acknowledged its drawbacks. Though she told the magazine that the city has "seen positive results," Ali admitted that the Seattle DOT had to reverse a Google-recommended traffic shift because it "did not result in a net benefit." Aleksandar Stevanovic, a University of Pittsburg civil engineer who studies traffic control, told the magazine that although it's "great that Google is working" on implementing high-tech solutions for the headache-inducing quandaries presented by traffic signals, human decision-making will always be key. "Traffic has so many uncertainties," Stevanovic noted. He added that controlling it is "not rocket science," but is, in fact, "more difficult." **More on Google AI:** [*Google's Demo of Its Latest AI Tech Was an Absolute Train Wreck*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()