One of life’s small but satisfying pleasures is showing up in the sweet spot while driving across town and catching all the green lights. Presently, having that happen is dependent on luck, but Audi is developing a system that will make never getting caught by a red light an everyday thing as a way of speeding up traffic while improving fuel efficiency and cutting emissions.

Driving through a string of green lights isn’t a question of gremlins or clean living, but of timing. Modern traffic signals operate on a process of preset timers. Sometimes these change depending on the time or, as it is increasingly common, because the traffic system reacts to changes in the pattern of car movements. To put it differently, the trick for an uninterrupted journey is to figure out how the lighting is timed right then and drive at the right speed, which means you always hit the intersections when it’s green.

By using the guesswork out of the equation, the Audi system works. Using Audi connect along with the Multi Media Interface (MMI) system, the auto uses the web to contact the area’s central traffic computer and asks it for your automated traffic light sequences. From these, the system calculates the best speed necessary to hit several green lights as possible. This speed, in addition to red, amber and green icons, are displayed to the driver via the Driver Information System (DIS) based in the central instrument cluster. It possesses a countdown until green and overrides the start/stop mechanism to create the engine online five seconds before it’s a chance to go in the event the car is already at a red light.

The Audi traffic light system was showcased at the CES in Las Vegas

Not only will the program speed up traffic, but improve fuel economy and reduce emissions, since the biggest enemy of fuel efficiency is the constant braking and acceleration of city driving,. That’s one bonus of the. That saves fuel and cuts pollution if the cars keep running. Audi states that if used consistently, the program could produce a 15 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and save 900 million liters (238 million gal) of petrol annually in Germany alone.

The program, which would be integrated into its Audi connect infotainment system, is production ready and may be fitted to every Audi model currently in production, pending the approval of local legislation, according to Audi.

A prototype of the system was shown off at January’s Electronic Products Show in Las Vegas in a Audi A6 Saloon, which ran in the city roads, with testing continuing there using 50 sets of traffic lights. In addition, Audi is also testing the machine with about 60 sets of traffic lights in Verona, Italy, while 25 cars are being tested in Berlin with 1,000 lights. It will probably be interesting to view how the system operates in the real world, even though audi has yet to release performance figures.

Source: Audi