Audi Traffic Light information System countdown to 2017

2017 Audi will countdown traffic lights for you

On your mark, get set

Audi is all about keeping its customers connected; hell, it even has a feature called Audi Connect. But in 2017 it will be connecting with a different system from usual: traffic lights.

Audi, along with Traffic Technology Services, will be launching a V2I (vehicle to infrastructure) system that tells a driver when the traffic lights are going to change. The tech, called Traffic Light Information (not a very creative name), will arrive on certain 2017 Q7, A4 and A4 Allroad models this fall.

TLI will be part of Audi connect Prime and enables the vehicles, in select cities, to talk with the traffic light system through the LTE data connection. The gauge cluster, and/or head-up display will tell the driver how many seconds until the light turns green. The system stops counting at the end, probably to deter drivers from jack-rabbiting the light.

The system unfortunately doesn’t tell you when the upcoming light is turning red, or what speed you’d have to hit to make it. That’s something we could really get behind, though we could see how regulators would be against it.

“This feature represents Audi’s first step in vehicle-to-infrastructure integration,” said Pom Malhotra, general manager, Connected Vehicles. “In the future we could envision this technology integrated into vehicle navigation, start/stop functionality and can even be used to help improve traffic flow in municipalities. These improvements could lead to better overall efficiency and shorter commuting times.”

We’re all for that.

We’ll see this system rolling out soon; Audi says it’ll announce which cities the system will work with later this year.