Connected infrastructure runs into red lights

As automakers and suppliers eye the potential of fully connected cities, the hard realities of rolling out those technologies are quickly becoming apparent.

One case study of the challenges of creating smart infrastructure: traffic lights.

Across the U.S., metropolitan areas have designed traffic control systems in fragmented ways, using different technological approaches. But getting traffic lights to work in a way that smooths traffic patterns could ease congestion, lower fuel consumption and ease the transition to self-driving fleets.

"If all the vehicles knew what all the traffic lights did, our best guess is the human carbon production would go down about 200 billion tons per year," said Matt Ginsberg, CEO of Connected Signals, a data-processing company that has worked with BMW and is in talks with other carmakers.

But before that is possible, traffic lights and vehicles need to learn to talk to each other.

"The biggest challenge so far is cities are not yet consistent about the means of communication for [traffic light] information," said Zach Bolton, a project manager for Continental. "It's all over the map."

Continental is developing in-vehicle technology that can read traffic signal information and, eventually, incorporate that information into the vehicles' powertrain and braking systems to enable potential fuel efficiency gains.

While the proposed federal mandate for vehicle-to-vehicle communication establishes the radio-based dedicated short-range communications, or DSRC, as a common language, no such requirement exists for vehicle-to-infrastructure technology.

This leaves cities two options: Replace legacy lights with costly, but industry-preferred, DSRC-enabled ones, or connect existing lights to a central data hub to transmit information over an Internet-based connection. Continental chooses to sidestep this by enabling both communications technologies for its system.

But each city uses its own coding language, complicating the issue. 

"In Detroit, a green light might look on the data server as a 011. However, the city of Troy might have the same green light signal, but have 110 instead of 011," said Bolton. 

And each city has its own rules, making political obstacles sometimes more challenging than physical ones. 

"When dealing with government, the technology is often the easiest part," said Kiel Ova, chief marketing officer for Traffic Technology Services. TTS is the middleman between carmakers and cities, facilitating the pipeline of data into vehicles. 

In December, Audi of America announced Traffic Light Information, a feature that uses TTS prediction technology to give drivers a countdown to when traffic signals change. The service is available on select 2017 Audi A4 and Q7 models as part of the carmaker's connected services package. 

The feature is available in Las Vegas and surrounding areas, and Audi plans to expand it to other U.S. cities and to Europe. 

"We're very deployment friendly," said Angela Castro, senior director for the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. "We're able to get stuff done in our community because we're taking it from a regional approach." 

The commission coordinates information sharing and traffic control for multiple cities. This means companies such as TTS that want access to data have one point of contact. 

"The hardest part is typically a policy decision where agencies are asked to enter into a data-sharing agreement with us," said Ova. In Los Angeles, Traffic Technology Services works with 115 agencies. In Miami, it's four. 

Persuading city administrators to share data means overcoming security concerns and offering value in return. 

Ova predicted this challenge could be easier with, say, parking, where cities face immediate problems, rather than traffic control where benefits are longer-term.