The tech behind smart cities

Hate waiting for the light to turn green? As streets get smarter, traffic lights may become extinct.

And there's a team at MIT's Senseable City Lab who are already designing what these intelligent roadways might look like. They've come up with an interactive game, DriveWave, to give people a peek into the future. Hint: They won't need traffic lights.

DriveWave debuted in Paris in September. A console showed two cities: one with a traditional intersection and one with a futuristic intersection. Visitors could turn knobs to control traffic and watch how the differing systems responded to traffic surges. The screens also show the average emissions and delay time. The visionary version is designed so cars never stop moving, which eliminates a major pollutant (vehicles pollute most when accelerating after a stop).

Carlo Ratti, director at the Senseable City Lab, believes that as soon as most cars on the road are self driving, something like DriveWave will replace everyday street lights. Some people say it could happen as early as 2050.