Traffic lights are expected to be obsolete in the age of autonomous cars but until that day comes, it still is (and will be) irritating to wait for the traffic light to turn green! Luckily, Audi has an interesting solution to this problem – talking to the traffic lights via the cloud. Yes, its easier to add a timer next to the traffic light but that isn’t the “smart” city way, but seriously though, its probably the first step towards enabling our streets for autonomous cars.
Audi Traffic light information: Traffic light information system is first step in vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) integration, set to launch in select smart cities Fall 2016 in the U.S. (Copyright: Audi)
Audi is taking the first step towards the V2I partnership, a smart cities project in the USA by allowing the cars to get information about the traffic light (indirectly) via the city’s central traffic control infrastructure. Using this information and the location of the car, your (audi) dashboard will then display how long you will have to wait at the next traffic light!
If you are hoping to see the feature in action, don’t hold your breathe! Audi is planning to roll out the feature in 2017 for select cities across USA. It might take a while before its available across the world. Its clear that our autonomous driving future is going to be an evolution that might take a decade or two. Its nice to see incremental change happening in the meantime.
