Project Green Light: Seattle is first city to test AI tech to improve traffic flow

SEATTLE - A new way of using artificial intelligence to streamline traffic could soon be coming to cities across the country, and Seattle is first on the list.

Tech giant Google's new Project Green Light system is currently being used in Seattle as a way to combat the city's gridlocked streets, using the company's Maps database and AI to optimize traffic lights and suggest changes to city engineers, according to a report from CBS News.

Such a system might be the ideal use for AI in its current form, according to Pioneer Development Group Chief Analytics Officer Christopher Alexander, who noted that managing traffic takes "sifting through massive amounts of data to find patterns," something that AI is perfectly capable of through the use of machine learning.

The skyline of Downtown Bellevue in the Seattle metropolitan area, seen from Interstate 405 northbound at exit 12. (Bruce Englehardt // CC BY-SA 4.0)

"AI capabilities can replicate dozens of analysts who normally would perform tasks like this and constantly make adjustments as needed," Alexander said. "With all AI, it is crucial that a human being vets the work, and as long as trained experts use AI as a form of augmentation, this is an ideal application for the current state of AI capabilities."

Google's Juliet Rothenberg helped spearhead the program in Seattle, telling CBS that just shifting a "few seconds" can result in major upgrades to efficiency.

The plan has paid off so far, city officials say, helping clear annoying traffic congestion in parts of the city.

"We had one case where we moved four seconds from a north-south street to an east-west street for a particular time of day, so then that can help reduce some of that stop-and-go traffic," Laura Wojcicki, an engineer at Seattle's Department of Transportation, told CBS News.

Better yet, Google is providing the service for free and plans to expand to thousands of cities.

Phil Siegel, the founder of the Center for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation, agreed that the use of AI for traffic management is ideal, though he noted that the tech to do so "has been around for a long time."

"Really, what Google is doing is adding new objectives like idling time and its resultant carbon footprint. Traffic management systems are already quite sophisticated. Perhaps the most important aspect of this one is it’s free," Siegel told Fox News Digital.

While Seattle is the first U.S. city to try Project Green Light, the Google program is also being tested at 70 intersections in 13 cities around the world. According to the report, the program affects 30 million car trips per month and Google believes that it can reduce stop-and-go traffic by up to 30%.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - MAY 15: Google Headquarters is seen in Mountain View, California, United States on May 15, 2023. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

"It means a lot for drivers, and it also means a lot for emissions," Wojcicki said.

Samuel Mangold-Lenett, a staff editor at The Federalist, says such uses for AI are now "inevitable," but he noted the need to continue accounting for "human behavior."

"U.S. infrastructure will become integrated with AI, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will make things easier or better," Mangold-Lenett told Fox News Digital. "We all know that people tend to be irrational when behind the wheel; there's a good chance this is just a quixotic attempt at social engineering and micromanagement."