Audi's traffic light sensor lets you catch all the greens

For most drivers, flying over a series of green lights one after the other is what comes closest to nirvana in the otherwise miserable experience of driving. Now, Audi is updating its integrated traffic signal reading technology to help you catch these mythical "green waves" with greater precision.

Audi calls the new Green Light Optimized Speed ​​Advisory, or GLOSA, which tells drivers how to moderate their speed to minimize red light stops. If you remember, some Audi 2017 and 2018 models feature integrated V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) technology, which allows them to receive information from a centralized traffic signal management system via the point. 4G LTE wireless access integrated car. Essentially, a sensor installed in the traffic light "talks" to the car and tells it how much time is left before a red light turns green.

With the help of information on traffic lights and the current position of a vehicle, Audi owners will now see a speed recommendation displayed on the screen behind the wheel. The distance to be stopped, the speed limit for the geographical area and the timing of the specific traffic signal are all used to calculate the speed recommendation displayed to the driver.

According to Audi, GLOSA is designed to help reduce the stress badociated with traffic jams.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety survey data shows that the average American driver spends nearly 300 hours a year driving, the equivalent of seven weeks of 40 hours in the office. Providing drivers with additional information, such as speed-optimized speed warnings, can help reduce anxiety and improve driver comfort while driving.

The automaker launched this technology for the first time in 2016 in Las Vegas. Since then, this technology has been extended to 4,700 intersections in more than a dozen cities, including Dallas, Denver, Gainesville, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco and Washington, DC and northern Virginia.

This is a step forward towards the connected city that some builders and companies have touted as the way forward. Although this may be a vision for a more distant future, the possibility of knowing if a traffic light will turn green in a few seconds seems to be a much more feasible convenience now.

Let's hope that Audi owners will not abuse the power of predicting when all lights turn green by driving carelessly or endangering the lives of other drivers and pedestrians.