Red light, white light? Scientists suggest adding 4th color to traffic lights to help self-driving cars

Researchers from North Carolina State University propose adding a fourth color to traffic lights, a white light, enabling self-driving vehicles to help control traffic flow, and let human drivers in on what’s going on. Across a series of computational simulations, study authors found that adding this fourth white light significantly improved travel time through intersections and reduced fuel consumption. “The white phase concept also incorporates a new traffic signal, so that human drivers know what they are supposed to do. And white lights will tell human drivers to simply follow the car in front of them.”How would a 4th traffic light work? “For example, ports see high volumes of commercial vehicle traffic, for which traffic flow is particularly important.