Red light computer could turn off your car to save gas

Computers already handle much of traffic law enforcement. Now IBM is developing a system to remotely turn off your car while idling at traffic lights, to save gas.

In our future as envisioned by IBM in a new patent application, you pull up to a red light with several cars in front of you. A traffic computer spots you via camera or GPS signal or perhaps a buried detector loop. It then calculates how long it will be before you can proceed, compares the amount of gas you would burn idling against the gas you would burn if you turned off your car and restarted it when the traffic was moving again. If the latter would use less gas, it would remotely turn off your car for you, then start it again when the coast was clear.