IBM Patent Application Describes "Intelligent" Stop Lights That Turn Off Cars

Daily Tech ^ | May 26, 2010 | Shane McGlaun

[decimon]

IBM patent goes Big Brother

Running red lights and failure to stop leads to untold numbers of traffic accidents around the world. Sitting at a red light with cars idling also burns fuel that really isn’t needed.

IBM has filed a patent application that outlines a system that would turn the motors of a car off at a traffic light to conserve fuel. Few will take issue with green technology that conserves fuel, saves them money, and reduces pollution. However, there is a dark side to the patent application that privacy advocates will not like.

The system IBM is proposing has to have access to the engine of the vehicles at the light to stop the engine. With access to the engine, the traffic lights can not only stop the engine of a driver's car, but it can also determine the duration that the engine is stopped and then when the light is over it can start the motors of the cars up in sequential order so the first cars at the light get to go first. The system would use GPS data to know where vehicles were located at the light.

[spacewarp]

Years ago, my father, who worked at IBM for many a year, told me about a friend of his who got a patent through IBM for a Trinary processor. Instead of your off/on, it had off/on/maybe. A revolution in computing. Did they use it? No.

Will they trot it out in a few years to fight Moore’s Law? Probably.

Who knows.

[Hoffer Rand]

They’ll have fun trying to turn off my 75 Corvette, or my 57 Chevy pickup, or my 53 Willys.

That comment is useless without pictures. :-)

[elkfersupper]

One courageous guy with a backhoe in each town can solve this. Too bad there isn’t one.