Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Stopped ... and off

Not totally relevant to the discussion of red-light compliance, but it's red light-related and totally crazy: IBM has filed for a patent on technology that will remotely turn off cars stopped at a stop light.

The technology would turn off the engines of cars stopped at a stop light, and then restart them -- not all at once, but in sequence according to position in line, to eek out the last bit of fuel savings opportunity.

Of course, there's no way this would ever fly. But, even if the technology were practical, it's not nearly as efficient as simply reducing the amount that cars have to stop.

1 comment:

dr2chase said...

Or (ahem) reducing the amount of cars.

Seems to me this invention requires a little refinement; if the signals are not encrypted/authenticated, some random hacker might build himself a car-stopper, just for grins.