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Jakarta installs AI-controlled traffic lights to ease congestion
The artificial intelligence will calculate the optimal green light duration based on the number of vehicles passing through a road segment and projected time they needed to go to the next intersection.
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Motorists commute in a traffic jam in Jakarta on December 13, 2022. Jakarta’s traffic has returned to pre-pandemic levels, after the government ended COVID-19 public activity restrictions. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
Jakarta’s traffic problem has gotten so bad it has forced the city to enlist artificial intelligence’s (AI) help to solve the perennial problem.
The Jakarta Transportation Agency is working with Google to install 20 AI-powered traffic lights across the city. These lights use AI to analyze the optimal green light duration based on the number of vehicles passing through and calculated time they need to go from one traffic light to another.
“Until now, managing traffic light duration is done by manually by officers,” said Jakarta Transportation Agency head Syafrin Liputo on Sunday, as reported by Kompas. “But now algorithms will do it automatically in real time.”
Syafrin claimed the AI had successfully eased congestion because it gives longer green lights for a more crowded road segment. The system can also recognize public transportation vehicles, such as buses of city-owned operator Transjakarta, and give them priority in intersections, he added.
The transportation agency has installed the AI-powered traffic lights in several parts across the city, such as an intersection between Jl. Kyai Tapa and Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta; the Jl. Gatot Subroto and Jl. Rasuna Said intersection in South Jakarta and Jl. Senen Raya-Jl. Kwitang junction in Central Jakarta.
The agency is planning to install AI traffic lights in 40 more intersections this year, Syafrin said.
