Vegas Bets on Smart City for Safer Streets

CES has taken over Las Vegas for its annual bacchanal of consumer technology, and Sin City is getting in on the action, according to a recent statement from Acyclica and the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. The partnership is designed to use IoT Smart City technology to make the city’s streets smarter and allow traffic to move more efficiently.

It will accomplish that goal by installing a traffic-monitoring system that uses technology to help determine how well vehicles are moving (or not) and monitor the state of traffic signals – all in real time. Under the agreement, Acyclica will install sensors at each of the region’s 2,300 intersections and across multi-jurisdiction corridors to provide the city and drivers a more holistic perspective on the region’s traffic. The city will use the sensors to monitor and control traffic movement from its traffic control center where engineers can change traffic-signal timing, check various streets and intersections and analyze trends in real-time.

In addition, drivers will have access to a smart city transportation technology that allows traffic lights to communicate with their cars so they can know when the light is going to turn green. Autonomous cars will also have access to real-time traffic light data so they know when to stop or slow down. When approaching a traffic light anywhere in the Las Vegas area, the cars will be able to show drivers the status of the light and inform cars and drivers about the optimum speed along a stretch of road to ensure that they can proceed through the maximum number of green lights.

As part of a regional goal to achieve zero traffic fatalities, Acyclica will enable real-time traffic light information, accessible through open APIs, to promote safe content delivery while drivers are stopped at traffic signals.

Audi recently announced Traffic Light Information as part of its Connect PRIME subscription service, available with select 2017 Audi models.  Soon owners of those models will have access to all the signals of Las Vegas. Audi is the first to take advantage of the new technology, but any car manufacturer can build it into their dashboards or devices.