When accidents and emergencies happen on the road, the biggest hindrance to helping the situation is response time for the first responders. Anything from extra traffic around incidents to road conditions can seriously affect how quickly help can get on the scene. In this month’s Drivers Ed with Debbie, we take a look at some new innovative technology that could help.
It’s everywhere…from ChatGPT, to creating your favorite memes on social media, AI is seeping into every aspect of life. Even when something happens on the road.
LYT is an AI company that looks at connected vehicles and machine learning to prioritize vehicle flow to help first responders. Their CEO, Tim Menard explains what they found.
“We do an annual survey at the end of every year and we had 2000 first responders fill this out. And what we’re seeing here between 2023 and 24 is that there has been a worsening of conditions thanks to traffic returning on the roads. Departments are reporting back that they’re having some serious issues with getting around town,” explains Menard.
Obviously problematic when you want a quick response time. It shouldn’t be, I mean they get the flashy lights and sirens, right? Well, you’d be surprised at how many times I’ve personally seen cars NOT getting out of the way as sirens blare. Pretty frustrating.
Menard says, “The biggest concern here that we have, especially in our urban areas like Milwaukee is we just have a lot of traffic lights and it’s already frustrating for the average driver who has spent time waiting in a red light without it changing for any reason it. Even more frustrating, when you’re an ambulance driver and you have to push people out of your way because that light’s not changing. And so there’s been technology that would change the traffic light, but today there’s a way to do it from the cloud where the entire route is known and you can actually change all those lights to be green for for the responders way in advance. And so they actually can now move through the roads, because everyone’s been cleared out of the way.”
So it’s a way to control a whole route instead of intersection by intersection.
“Traffic lights, that’s the only thing that is throttling traffic in real time. There’s only stop signs and there’s green and red lights, and if all the traffic lights can be optimized across the region, there’s a possibility to reduce travel time for everybody by 40 to 50%. And that’s where artificial intelligence, machine learning, and real time data all come together to bring this utopian vision,” says Menard.
And it’s not so far away either, there’s already technology in vehicles. Remember connected vehicles?
Menard says, “By using the technology now it’s in the vehicles, there’s way more awareness now of what the event is and instead of calling on the radio, now the ambulance, the fire truck, the police car- that position is known. So it’s very easy to take a bird’s eye view now of the situation. If you’re leaving that fire station to go on a response, if you know where the freight train is that’s blocking the road, then you can take the overpass that goes over it immediately. So it’s access to just the best decisions you can make because you have all of the information now.”
First responders aren’t the only ones that can take advantage of this technology, “It can be used in a way to inform traffic lights that actually results in a positive effect, actually makes transit competitive. If you were to see buses in Milwaukee only get green lights and only stop at bus stop to bus stop, you might be very well compelled to take the bus,” explains Menard.
Bottom line is, even with our reckless driving issues we have here in Milwaukee, first responders need a way to get to incidents safely, and it’s not just for them.
Menard says, “The most dangerous part of their job that we hear from them is just driving to the situation. And so traffic light technology like this that may stop the rest of traffic, could be the difference of your parent, your friend, someone you know losing their house or losing a loved one.”
So let’s help them out, pay attention, pull over when you do see the lights or hear the sirens. That along with this new technology could possibly help YOU out in the future.
TOP STORIES FROM THE WTMJ NEWSROOM:
