Photo: Audi
Ever since 2016, Audi drivers in some U.S. cities have always known when the traffic lights ahead will change to green because the car itself keeps them in the loop. The technology that allows for this to happen, Traffic Light Information, is as of now present in Europe as well.
This vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) service will be deployed in Audi cars starting with the e-tron, A4, A6, A7, A8, Q3, Q7 and Q8 that will roll off assembly lines starting mid-July. At first, it will only be available to customers in the carmaker’s hometown of Ingolstadt, but from 2020 the service will expand to other European cities.
Audi’s V2I system will offer drivers information about time-to-green and the speed the car needs to travel to be able to catch the next green light. Both features are meant to facilitate the flow of traffic in congested cities.
In essence, by taking information from the public infrastructure – cities need to have compatible technologies deployed for the system to work - Traffic Light Information tell the drivers how fast to go – within local speed limits – to be able to pass the next traffic light on green, but also shows a countdown displaying the seconds remaining until the next green phase.
Andre Hainzlmaier, Audi head of apps development, says the challenges posed by the European infrastructure when it comes to this system are far greater than the ones the carmaker had to face in the U.S.
The main difficulty is the fact that, whereas American traffic light systems were designed uniformly over a large area, the European ones were created locally, not being connected to one another.
“How quickly other cities are connected to this technology depends above all on whether data standards and interfaces get established and cities digitalize their traffic lights,” Hainzlmaier said.
For now, Audi did not say whether the feature will be offered at an additional cost.
Audi’s V2I system will offer drivers information about time-to-green and the speed the car needs to travel to be able to catch the next green light. Both features are meant to facilitate the flow of traffic in congested cities.
In essence, by taking information from the public infrastructure – cities need to have compatible technologies deployed for the system to work - Traffic Light Information tell the drivers how fast to go – within local speed limits – to be able to pass the next traffic light on green, but also shows a countdown displaying the seconds remaining until the next green phase.
Andre Hainzlmaier, Audi head of apps development, says the challenges posed by the European infrastructure when it comes to this system are far greater than the ones the carmaker had to face in the U.S.
The main difficulty is the fact that, whereas American traffic light systems were designed uniformly over a large area, the European ones were created locally, not being connected to one another.
“How quickly other cities are connected to this technology depends above all on whether data standards and interfaces get established and cities digitalize their traffic lights,” Hainzlmaier said.
For now, Audi did not say whether the feature will be offered at an additional cost.
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