Audi Connecting Cars In The U.S. To Traffic Signals

Audi has announced today that it’s rolling out technology in the United States which will enable its cars to communicate with traffic signals. It says that this will be the industry’s first use of this relatively new technology and that it’s going to provide a more stress-free ride. The company has said that select 2017 Q7 and A4 models that are built after June 1st, 2016 will feature this groundbreaking technology that connects cars to municipal infrastructure.

This technology enables traffic signals and other infrastructure to effectively communicate with cars on the road by exchanging safety and other operational data wirelessly with compatible vehicles through the cloud.

Many car manufacturers across the globe are actively testing this technology with the aim of ultimately preventing crashes and reducing congestion on the roads. Audi points out that its first foray in this technology is not a safety feature but more of a comfort and convenience feature.

The system will enable its compatible cars to display a countdown before a red light is going to turn red. This will immediately let the driver know how much time they have before the light turns green and eliminate much of the anxiety out of waiting for the light to change.

In the future, this technology may also be linked to an Audi’s navigation system or its start/stop feature and may even be able to heed advice from traffic signals on what speed to keep so that the car can match the flow of traffic lights.

Audi has said that it’s going to roll out this technology in as many as seven cities across the United States this year but it’s yet to disclose which cities are on the list.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Transportation
Tags: audi