Business
California wants to reduce traffic. The Newsom administration thinks AI can help
Being stuck in traffic is a familiar problem for many Californians, but state officials want to harness the power of artificial intelligence to discover new solutions.
The California Department of Transportation, teaming up with other state agencies, is asking technology companies by Jan. 25 to propose generative AI tools that could help California reduce traffic and make roads safer, especially for pedestrians, cyclists and scooter riders. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can quickly produce text, images and other content, but the technology can also help workers brainstorm ideas.
The request shows how California is trying to tap into AI to improve government services at a time when lawmakers seek to safeguard against the technology’s potential risks. As Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Google and other tech giants roll out new AI-powered tools, the technology’s rapid pace of advancement has raised concerns about misinformation, job displacement, copyright infringement and privacy.
The state’s plan to potentially use artificial intelligence to help alleviate traffic jams stems from an executive order that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in September about generative AI. As part of the order, the state also released a report outlining the benefits and risks of using AI in state government.
California state agencies have access to a trove of valuable data, including from thousands of traffic sensors and cameras. Analyzing that data to quickly reduce traffic and improve safety can be challenging. The huge volume of data comes in various forms, such as photos, videos and text.
The state currently uses technology to help analyze traffic data, but the agencies rely heavily on workers to decide what to do to improve the flow of traffic in real time. Generative AI could come up with better solutions.
“It probably would change the strategy much, much faster than a human being will be able to do,” said Amy Tong, secretary of government operations for California.
There are many reasons why traffic jams happen, including crashes, debris in the roadway, major events that draw big crowds and bad weather. But there are also recurring issues that can make roads more congested, said California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin.
For example, a narrow part of a road could hinder the flow of traffic. Workers could use generative AI to brainstorm solutions.
“There’s potential for generative AI to actually help us better funnel traffic through those areas, instead of automatically thinking ‘Oh, let’s just widen the road. That’s the solution,’” he said.
Caltrans also wants to use generative AI to help achieve its vision of having zero road fatalities and serious injuries by 2050. Through analysis of crash sites, lighting conditions, traffic patterns and behavior of “vulnerable roadway users” such as pedestrians and cyclists, Caltrans says AI could help workers identify areas that are at higher risk for accidents and suggest safety measures.
“This proactive approach will enable transportation system operators and engineers to anticipate and address safety issues in advance or more quickly, rather than merely reacting to them after the fact,” a document outlining the problem Caltrans is trying to solve states.
As technology becomes more incorporated in state government work, Omishakin said he anticipates jobs will change but not be entirely replaced.
Companies are already using AI to analyze traffic patterns and the movement of people on the roads, including drivers and bicyclists. Google, for example, has a research initiative known as Project Green Light that cities such as Seattle are participating in that aims to improve the flow of traffic and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars on the road. As part of the project, Google uses AI to identify when engineers can adjust the timing of traffic lights and provides those recommendations to city officials.
INRIX, a transportation analytics company, announced a new generative AI-powered product in November that could help cities better manage the flow of traffic. A report by the company found that Los Angeles in 2022 was the 6th-most congested city in the United States with delays costing drivers, on average, 95 lost hours and $1,601.
Technology also isn’t perfect and humans need to be in the mix to ensure that the AI system is using data from the right sources and not spewing out errors, Tong said. The state is also taking steps to limit potential data security and privacy issues. State data that vendors use in the AI systems have to be stored within Caltrans’ “managed cloud environments,” according to a document about the state proposal.
The state’s request for innovative ideas involves various steps that include the state evaluating the solutions the companies suggest. California, which faces a record $68-billion budget deficit, may then award a contract to companies. Other state agencies are also planning to ask businesses to provide ideas to help improve other state services, including call centers that help taxpayers, Tong said.
“We definitely have the budget constraint in mind, but at the same time, public safety is a high priority for the administration,” Tong said. “So that’s why we continue to explore these options.”
Lululemon, the yoga pants and athletic clothing company, has hired a former executive from a rival, Nike, as its new chief executive.
Heidi O’Neill, who spent more than 25 years at Nike, will take the reins and join Lululemon’s board of directors on Sept. 8, the company announced on Wednesday.
The leadership change is happening during a tumultuous time for Lululemon, which had grown to $11 billion in revenue by persuading shoppers to ditch their jeans and slacks for stretchy leggings. But lately, sales have declined in North America amid intense competition and shifting fashion trends, with consumers favoring looser styles rather than the form-fitting silhouettes for which Lululemon is best known.
“As I step into the C.E.O. role in September, my job will be to build on that foundation — to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world,” Ms. O’Neill, 61, said in a statement.
Lululemon, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has also been entangled in a corporate power struggle over the company’s future. Its billionaire founder, Chip Wilson, has feuded with the board, nominated independent directors and criticized executives.
Lululemon’s previous chief executive, Calvin McDonald, stepped down at the end of January as pressure mounted from Mr. Wilson and some investors. One activist investor, Elliott Investment Management, had pushed its own chief executive candidate, who was not selected.
The interim co-chiefs, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini, will lead the company until Ms. O’Neill’s arrival, when they are expected to return to other senior roles. The pair had outlined a plan to revive sales at Lululemon, promising to invest in stores, save more money and speed up product development.
“We start the year with a real plan, with real strategies,” Mr. Maestrini said in an interview this year. “We make sure decisions are made fast.”
Lululemon said last month that it would add Chip Bergh, the former chief executive of Levi Strauss, to its board to replace David Mussafer, the chairman of the private equity firm Advent International, whom Mr. Wilson had sought to remove.
Ms. O’Neill climbed the organizational chart at Nike for decades, working across divisions including consumer sports, product innovation and brand marketing, and was most recently its president of consumer, product and brand. She left Nike last year amid a shake-up of senior management that led to the elimination of her role.
Analysts said Ms. O’Neill would be expected to find ways to energize Lululemon’s business and reset the company’s culture in order to improve performance.
“O’Neill is her own person who will come with an agenda of change,” said Neil Saunders, the managing director of GlobalData, a data analytics and consulting company. “The task ahead is a significant one, but it can be undertaken from a position of relative stability.”
Eaton wildfire survivors’ anger about Southern California Edison’s burying of electric wires in Altadena boiled over Tuesday with residents calling on government officials to temporarily halt the work.
In a letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, more than 120 Altadena residents and the town’s council wrote that they had witnessed “manifest failures” by Edison in recent months as it has been tearing up streets and digging trenches to bury the wires.
The residents cited the unexpected financial cost of the work to homeowners and possible harm to the town’s remaining trees. They also pointed out how the work will leave telecommunication wires above ground on poles.
“The current lack of coordination is compounding the stress of a community still reeling from the Eaton Fire, and risks causing further irreparable harm,” the residents wrote.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday night to send the letter.
Scott Johnson, an Edison spokesman, said Wednesday that the company has been working to address the concerns, including by looking for other sources of funds to help pay for the homeowners’ costs.
“We recognize this community has already faced a number of challenges,” he said.
Johnson said the company will allow homeowners to keep existing overhead lines connecting their homes to the grid if they are worried about the cost.
Edison’s crews, Johnson said, have also been trained to use equipment that avoids roots and preserves the health of trees.
The utility has said that burying the wires as the town rebuilds thousands of homes destroyed in the fire will make the electrical grid safer and more reliable.
But anger has grown as work crews have shown up unexpectedly and residents learned they’re on the hook to pay tens of thousands of dollars to connect their homes to the buried lines.
Residents have also found the crews digging under the town’s oak and pine trees that survived last year’s fire. Arborists say the trenches could destroy the roots of some of the last remaining trees and kill them.
Amy Bodek, the county’s regional planning director, recently warned Edison that a government ordinance protects oak trees and that “utility trenching is not exempt from these requirements.”
Residents have also pointed out that in much of Altadena, the telecom companies, including Spectrum and AT&T, have not agreed to bury their wires in Edison’s trenches. That means the telecom wires will remain on poles above ground, which residents say is visually unappealing.
“While our community supports the long-term benefits of moving utilities underground, the current execution by SCE is placing undue financial and planning burdens on homeowners, causing irreparable harm to our heritage tree canopy, and proceeding without adequate local oversight,” the residents wrote.
They want the project halted until the problems are addressed.
Edison announced last year that it would spend as much as $925 million to underground and rebuild its grid in Altadena and Malibu, where the Palisades fire caused devastation.
The work — which costs an estimated $4 million per mile — will earn the utility millions of dollars in profits as its electric customers pay for it over the next decades.
Pedro Pizarro, chief executive of Edison International, told Gov. Gavin Newsom last year that state utility rules would require Altadena and Malibu homeowners to pay to underground the electric wire from their property line to the panel on their house. Pizarro estimated it would cost $8,000 to $10,000 for each home.
But some residents, who need to dig long trenches, say it will cost them much more.
“We are rebuilding and with the insurance shortfall, our finances are stretched already,” Marilyn Chong, an Altadena resident, wrote in a comment attached to the letter. “Incurring the additional burden of financing SCE’s infrastructure is not something we can or should have to do.”
Other fire survivors complained of Edison’s lack of planning and coordination with residents.
“I’ve started rebuilding, and apparently there won’t be underground power lines for me to connect with in time when my house will be done,” wrote Gail Murphy. “So apparently I’m supposed to be using a generator, and for how long!?”
Johnson said the company has set up a phone line for people with concerns or questions. That line — 1-800-250-7339 — is answered Monday through Saturday, he said.
Residents can also go to Edison’s office in Altadena at 2680 Fair Oaks Avenue. The office is open Monday to Friday from 8 to 4:30.
It’s unclear if the Eaton fire would have been less disastrous if Altadena’s neighborhood power lines had been buried.
The blaze ignited under Edison’s towering transmission lines that run through Eaton Canyon. Those lines carry bulk power through the company’s territory. In Altadena, Edison is burying the smaller distribution lines, which carry power to homes.
The government investigation into the cause of the fire has not yet been released. Pizarro has said that a leading theory is that a century-old transmission line, which had not carried power for 50 years, somehow re-energized to spark the blaze.
The fire killed at least 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 homes and other structures.
Oil prices rose and stocks moved slightly higher on Wednesday as investors tried to make sense of President Trump’s decision to extend the cease-fire with Iran despite doubts about the status of another round of peace talks.
An adviser to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the influential speaker of the Iranian Parliament, dismissed the cease-fire announcement, saying that it had “no meaning.” He equated the U.S. naval blockade with bombings, with commercial vessels coming under attack near the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial shipping lane that has been at the center of a growing energy crisis.
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