The average American driver spends 300 hours a year driving, and Audi hopes its latest piece of technology helps reduce that figure.
The luxury brand announced Tuesday its new Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory (GLOSA), a funny name for an impressive technology that aims to help drivers hit every green light, all the time. GLOSA builds upon Audi's Traffic Light Information (TLI) system, which is one of the industry's first dips into vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology.
Audi traffic light recognition
The new technology uses traffic signal information and relays the data to the Audi vehicle. The system calculates the car's position and speed to provide drivers a recommended speed that will let him or her travel through an intersection ahead while the light is green. The distance to stop the car, speed limit of the area, signal timing, and more are used to calculate the recommended speed. We don't imagine Audi would tell drivers to commit reckless operation just to catch a green light, though.
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In addition to GLOSA's launch, TLI has expanded its market availability. The technology as a whole is only possible in cities that have invested in smart infrastructure for cars to communicate with via a signal. Now, Audi drivers in Denver, Colorado, White Plains, New York, Gainesville, Florida, and Orlando, Florida will be able to experience TLI's features. The technology previously launched in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City, Houston, and Washington, D.C.
Audi Traffic Light Information System, Las Vegas
TLI also includes "time-to-green," which monitors traffic lights. When the light is red, TLI counts down the time remaining before the signal turns green in the instrument cluster or head-up display. In the future, as Audi massages the technology, TLI could work with a car's stop-start system to save fuel, or provide optimized navigation routes to avoid an intersection with a red light. The brand said all of the developments are meant to reduce traffic congestion and keep drivers moving.
TLI and its associated features are only present on a few 2017 and newer Audi vehicles equipped with Audi Connect Prime, but as cities continue to make infrastructure smarter, more cars will communicate with objects all around the driver.