Audi’s Traffic light information system offers a first: the ability to tell you when the stoplight is going to change from red to green. This is a big thing for the impatient driver, but it’s an even bigger thing for the automotive industry. With the world’s only shipping example of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication (where the car exchanges data with a component of the highway system), Audi’s ushering in a new era of cars as data-driven mobility devices. The new feature, announced Monday, will be available on 2017 Q7, A4, and A4 allroad models built from June, 2016 onward.
Your car will know what the traffic light’s doing
Think about it: The Traffic light information system lets the car talk to the road. As your car nears a traffic light, it will receive real-time data about the signals at that location. Because the data can be complex, Audi says the car’s computer will decide whether it has enough information to know when the traffic light you’re sitting at will turn green. If so, it’ll display a countdown clock on the instrument cluster.
“A better-informed driver is a less-stressed driver,” said Pom Malhotra, Audi’s General Manager of Connectivity, during a briefing late last week. If you know you have 20 seconds before the light turns, you can grind your teeth—or you can take the time to speak to a passenger, or give your eyes and hands a quick break from their driving positions.
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