Quantum News Nexus

Quantum computing can make a difference for many organizations in its ability to tackle and quickly solve highly complex problems, but it is sometimes difficult to demonstrate how it impacts the daily lives of average individuals, some of whom may not know or care what a quantum computer is.

Smart city applications represent one area in which that impact could be keenly felt. While smart cities are more often discussed in the context of IoT and AI, quantum computing can play a role as well, particularly in traffic management and optimization. 

It will be surprising to absolutely no one to hear that urban traffic congestion is a huge and costly problem. The 2024 INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard noted that in the US alone drivers lost an average of 43 hours to traffic jams last year, costing them about $771 in lost time and productivity. Drivers in the most congested cities–New York City and Chicago–lost more than 100 hours and $1,800 in wasted time.

What the daily commuter sees as a productivity-draining, stress-inducing traffic jam, quantum computing companies see as an opportunity. For example, Pasqal, D-Wave Quantum (whose annealing systems are aimed directly at optimization problems), Qilimanjaro, and Volkwagen are just a few of the companies that have carried out studies and published papers on quantum computing for traffic management.

Joining them recently was Quantum Art, a full-stack quantum computing company based in Israel that is building trapped-ion systems. Quantum Art announced a partnership with Ayalon Highways, Israel’s largest transportation and traffic management organization and the executive arm of the Israeli Ministry of Transportation, to conduct a feasibility study on applying quantum computing to traffic optimization in towns and cities. The collaboration centers on joint development to reduce travel time through smart, near real-time traffic light management, according to Quantum Art, which added that as part of the project quantum-accelerated algorithms will be benchmarked against the leading classical simulation and optimization tools in use today.

Quantum Art CEO Tal David further told Quantum News Nexus that the aim of the use case development project is “to identify the added value from solving this problem with quantum algorithms (and our technology specifically), and then if there’s a substantial added value, to define what are the requirements from the quantum computer that are needed in order to make this happen. The current scale is of a very small town, so a few dozen traffic lights. Potential expansion of the project would include scaling to larger towns.”

Tal Elimelech, Director of Experimental Transportation Systems and Innovative Mobility Solutions at Ayalon Highways, said in a statement provided by Quantum Art, “Our job is to keep traffic moving across one of the busiest networks in Israel. We believe quantum computing can help us manage hundreds of intersections in near real time, to provide benefits to commuters, businesses and the environment. The economic impact of upgrading our capabilities using quantum computing is expected to be huge.”

David said Quantum Art will start out the project by using a simulator before moving to the company’s 50-qubit Montage quantum computer, which is due to be available soon via the cloud, and potentially later on to its Perspective system, a machine of 1,000 physical qubits and 100 logical qubits that is planned for 2027. The project also will start out by using off-line traffic data, but eventually will incorporate “near real time” data, David said, adding, “All results will go to Ayalon Highways that can control the traffic light system to optimize travel time, fuel consumption, pedestrian safety or any other selected KPI. Drivers won’t get any data but will enjoy the improved KPIs.” 

The average commuter may still not understand or wish to know too much about quantum computing, but as projects like Quantum Art’s and those involving other companies listed above progress, quantum computing’s benefits in real-world use cases will start to become more evident. While some quantum computing applications revolve around very particular problems unique to a specific industry, every industry faces optimization challenges of one kind or another.

“This is our first traffic optimization project,” David said. However, a lot of these optimization problems map out quite nicely from one application vertical to another. For example, it may be that after finalizing this application, we would be able to use the same approach with small modifications, to do other optimization problems; for example, scheduling problems, logistics optimization, etc.”

Quantum News Nexus is a new site from freelance writer and editor Dan O’Shea that covers quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum networking, quantum-safe security, and more. You can find him on X @QuantumNewsGuy and doshea14@gmail.com.