Increasing fuel efficiency with a smartphone – MIT News Office

A network of dashboard-mounted phones can collect data on traffic lights and tell drivers how to avoid inefficient stopping and starting.

In addition to testing SignalGuru in Cambridge, where traffic lights are on fixed schedules, the researchers also tested it in Singapore, where the duration of lights varies continuously according to fluctuations in traffic flow. In Cambridge, the system was able to predict when lights would change with an error of only two-thirds of a second. In suburban Singapore, the error increased to slightly more than a second, and at one particular light in densely populated central Singapore, it went up to more than two seconds. “The good news for the U.S.,” Koukoumidis says, “is that most signals in the U.S. are dummy signals” — signals with fixed schedules. But even an accuracy of two and half seconds, Koukoumidis says, “could very well help you avoid stopping at an intersection.” Moreover, he points out, the predictions for variable signals would improve as more cars were outfitted with the system, collecting more data.

via Increasing fuel efficiency with a smartphone – MIT News Office.

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