Watched a city planner demo AI traffic modeling at a conference last month

I was at a small urban planning meetup in Portland where a guy showed how an AI system rerouted emergency vehicles in real time during a simulated flood. It cut response times by 40% compared to the old static route maps they've been using for years. Has anyone else seen these traffic AIs actually working in a real city yet?

3 comments

3 Comments

uma_taylor4711h ago

The 40% improvement is impressive, but were the emergency vehicles actually navigating real traffic or just running a simulation with perfect conditions? Did that demo account for human drivers ignoring sirens or the usual gridlock that happens during floods?

ericj453h ago

@uma_taylor47 The presenter claimed the AI was trained on actual Portland traffic data from the 2023 flood event, not just a clean simulation. But I'm skeptical too - those models never seem to account for things like a jackknifed truck blocking your only detour route. Until I see it handle a real-time screw-up like that in traffic, it's just a fancy numbered slide.

ryantorres2h ago

Yeah honestly I was on your side until I watched them run it live with a real detour failure, that kinda shifted my take.