A very sad news to all red light zippers, as per the new IBM patent application “A System and Method for Controlling Vehicle Engine Running State at Busy Intersections for Increased Fuel Consumption Efficiency” system will remotely stop vehicle engines and prevent vehicle to cross at red light.So no more zipping :).
The patent states that with “increasing vehicle usage there may be more traffic and longer wait times at traffic signals,” resulting in wasted fuel if the vehicle engines are kept running. It acknowledges that most drivers do not turn off their vehicles’ engines in such situations, and that more fuel may be used in restarting the engine than in keeping it running if it is stopped for too short a time. The system would therefore take into account the time remaining before the signal changes to determine if the vehicle’s engine should be stopped.
The system would be able to receive position information from vehicles waiting at red lights to determine a queue of participating vehicles stopped at the signal. It would then determine the time still to elapse before the lights turn green, and if this time is over a set threshold (such as two minutes) the traffic light would then send signals to the vehicle engines to stop them.
When the lights turn green, a “start-engine notification” would be sent to the front vehicle to start its engine first, and a signal would be sent to the second vehicle in the queue an “optimal time” later, and so on.
The idea is at the patent application stage, and the patent only covers the method but not the communications technology.Although there are other side also of this idea too What if some hacker got the access ? But this system is defiantly going to reduce fuel consumption.Every science has bad and good side both.
Are you going to support bad side or good one ?
Via : Slashdot
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