Design ‘smart’ traffic lights that can easily be integrated into current society and are prepared to adapt for future advancements in the vehicle industry (such as autonomous cars).
Start with an app feature that is implemented into Google maps, advertised as a way to ‘shorten your commute’. This app will send location data, monitored by small computers that are implemented into existing traffic lights. These computers will send this data to a centralized server. The location data it receives will help the app determine routes that are more efficient and help to time out the changing of traffic lights to accommodate the traffic flow at any given time.
Hardware for traffic lights and a server will be necessary. Software will be used for the app and for the program that determines the changing of the traffic lights.