Audi is expanding its Traffic Light Information system with the addition of a Green Light Optimization Speed Advisory, a feature that will suggest reduced speeds as you approach an intersection, so you can avoid stopping.
For a few years already, Audi vehicles have provided drivers with red light countdowns via the Traffic Light Information (TLI) system; now, the company is expanding the system to include the Green Light Optimization Speed Advisory (GLOSA), as reported by Popular Science Monday.
GLOSA works by offering speed suggestions on the digital instrument panel. Instead of hastily arriving at an intersection and having to wait for the light to change, the system provides you with a reduced speed recommendation so that, by the time you arrive at the traffic light, the light will be green.
After three seconds, the notice will disappear to ensure the driver's eyes are on the road as they approach the intersection. This tech, if implemented well, will make the red traffic light countdown irrelevant.
Traffic Light Information is available with Audi Connect subscriptions on 2017 models and more recent (excluding the A3 and TT) in designated areas whose traffic lights support "vehicle-to-infrastructure communications." Since 2016, the TLI system has expanded to 13 metropolitan areas consisting of over 4,600 intersections.
As more traffic lights are updated to smart traffic signals, use of such features will expand, but of course, "municipal governments are not typically anxious to spend money replacing functional equipment sooner than necessary," therefore, it's a bit of a waiting game.
Cities with areas that support TLI and therefore GLOSA include Dallas, Denver, Gainesville, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Las Angeles, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, and Washington DC.
