Patent ID: 11866046

Abstract:
Traffic control systems implement methods for detecting various malfunctions including faulty sensors and sensor connections that may result in false green requests, undetected green requests, and faults with the visual displays of a traffic control device (TCD). The sensors may include inductive loops and pedestrian pushbuttons. A TCD may communicate with remote resources to help identify faults. The remote resources may include computer systems, which may be configured to interact with human resources such as crowdsourced resources. A TCD's communications with the remote resources may go through vehicle computers and smart phones of vehicles' occupants and pedestrians. A TCD may emit signals to enable vehicle computers to improve accuracy of position location. A TCD may emit its state and time-to-state-change information, in real or substantially real time. A vehicle computer may receive the state and/or time to state changes and in response vary operation of the vehicle's power train.