Vegas Stop Lights and Audi Cars Are Now Communicating with Each Other

Yes, there are traffic lights in some parts of the world that have an attached counter next to them informing everyone about this vital information. For some reason we will never understand, this idea did not catch up with all city administrations, so most of us are left to guess whether there's enough time to get out and take our jackets off, or it's better to continue sweating and not risk getting lynched.

Why is knowing this so important? Well, besides the fact it makes you feel more in control, it also opens up a few new possibilities. If you're approaching a stop light and you can see there are 10 seconds left until it's go time, you can adjust your speed accordingly and navigate smoothly without having to come to a halt.

Audi seems to be aware of these benefits and has announced yesterday the launch of the first vehicle-to-infrastructure service in the USA. The feature is restricted to Las Vegas for now, as well as just a few Audi models - the new A4 family and Q7 SUV - but assuming it receives positive feedback, it will probably expand.

The drivers can see the time remaining until the lights turn green in the instrument cluster or head-up-display, if available, whenever approaching a connected traffic light. This feature is called Traffic Light Information and is part of the Audi connect PRIME suite. It uses on-board 4G LTE data connection to communicate with the Las Vegas traffic management system.

This "time-to-green" feature is just a pioneer, with other, more useful implementations to follow. Audi says that in the future, it would be possible to control the start/stop system (presumably to have the engine switched on automatically just before the light turns green), work together with the satnav to find the quickest route or inform the driver of the optimal speed to catch as many green lights as possible.

It's not exactly ground-breaking technology, but it does open the door for better communication between cars and infrastructure. And when autonomous vehicles finally arrive, this will be almost just as important as cars talking to each other.