With the aim of reducing traffic congestion and preparing streets for autonomous vehicles, engineers from North Carolina State University are studying the introduction of four-color traffic lights.
In addition to the original three colors (red, yellow, and green), the traffic lights would add white to their composition, a color exclusive to autonomous vehicles, which would have priority in traffic flow.
The green light would still apply to human drivers, but only after the white phase. The goal is to keep autonomous cars always ahead of human-driven ones, preventing interference in vehicle communication.
Those in favor of the proposal suggest that the new traffic lights would make traffic safer, faster, and smarter.
The study reveals that with only 10% of autonomous vehicles on a road, delays decreased by 3% with the use of white light traffic lights. With 30%, the reduction went over 10%.
In scenarios with few autonomous vehicles, the traffic light would revert to operating with just three colors.
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