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Software Transportation Technology Science

Audi's Traffic Light Information System Tells You When The Lights Are Going To Turn Green (pcworld.com) 203

Posted by BeauHD from the texting-and-driving dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld: Audi's Traffic light information system offers a first: the ability to tell you when the stoplight is going to change from red to green. This is a big thing for the impatient driver, but it's an even bigger thing for the automotive industry. The new feature, announced Monday, will be available on 2017 Q7, A4, and A4 allroad models built from June, 2016 onward. As your car nears a traffic light, it will receive real-time data about the signals at that location. Because the data can be complex, Audi says the car's computer will decide whether it has enough information to know when the traffic light you're sitting at will turn green. If so, it'll display a countdown clock on the instrument cluster. Audi's General Manager of Connectivity, Pom Malhotra, said Audi tested the service on 100 cars for over a year. The company's working closely with the agencies that manage the 300,000 or so traffic lights in the United States, and data provider Traffic Technology Solutions (TTS) of Portland, Oregon. TTS processes a constant stream of traffic signal status in real time and sends it to Audi's own servers, which then send it to the car. Malhotra said, "A few things have been implemented that we think of as safeguards." For example, the countdown timer will disappear several seconds before the red light changes to green, forcing you to put down your phone or stop whatever you may be doing in the meantime and look at the light yourself. The feature will be available in the three models mentioned via Audi's Connect Prime infotainment package, which costs $199 for 6 months or $750 for 30 months.
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Audi's Traffic Light Information System Tells You When The Lights Are Going To Turn Green More

Audi's Traffic Light Information System Tells You When The Lights Are Going To Turn Green

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  • just like the NHRA

    • In Germany, lights work that way (Score:5, Informative)

      by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Monday August 15, 2016 @05:25PM (#52707555)
      In Germany, you will be sitting at a red light, and the yellow will also come on. It is the warning that it is about to turn green. Very much like a christmas tree. You better start moving when the light goes green, or everyone else will run you over. I can see why they are adding this to their cars.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Mr D from 63 ( 3395377 )
        Well, I'm in the US where 13.6% of drivers completely suck and screw up driving for the rest of us. That includes people who somehow seem surprised that the light turned green, and sit there completely unprepared for what to do next. Meanwhile, 4 cars that could have followed through are stuck waiting on the next.

        So I welcome our green-light warning overlords.
        • Except for the fact that Audi drivers are uniformly the worst, the biggest, most self-entitled, self-absorbed assholes on the road. So, when that light turns green, three Audi drivers on the cross-street will still be out in the middle of the intersection, waiting to turn left after THEIR light changes to red.

          Pay attention -- the next time some asshole throws himself under your wheels, expecting you to brake hard so he can save a tenth of a second -- even though YOU have the right-of-way -- it'll be an Aud

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by NotAPK ( 4529127 )

            I agree with you that Aldi drivers are arseholes.

            However: "So, when that light turns green, three Audi drivers on the cross-street will still be out in the middle of the intersection, waiting to turn left after THEIR light changes to red."

            Dude, that's how you are supposed to drive! It's fine to queue in the middle of the intersection and once the lights go red you can then make the turn and clear the intersection. If you get a green light and there are still cars in the intersection: guess what Sunshine? Yo

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Quirkz ( 1206400 )

              It's fine to queue in the middle of the intersection and once the lights go red you can then make the turn and clear the intersection.

              I've gotten wary of this recently. Last year in my town they redid all the traffic lights to add in blinking left yellow arrows at all the intersections, instead of just the implied yield when there's a green circle. In the process they made some of the intersections asynchronous, so that the blinking yellow left would go to hard red left while there was still oncoming traffic. I'm pretty sure this was a mistake, and given a year I think they've cleaned most of them up now, but I got trapped once and saw it

          • I'm glad that someone else sees this - the assholes that got BMW drivers a bad reputation all moved to Audi.

        • Well, I'm in the US where 13.6% of drivers completely suck and screw up driving for the rest of us. That includes people who somehow seem surprised that the light turned green, and sit there completely unprepared for what to do next. Meanwhile, 4 cars that could have followed through are stuck waiting on the next.

          So I welcome our green-light warning overlords.

          Most of the time it is just someone who got distracted, which isn't particularly dangerous when sitting at a light. I don't think a countdown will help with a lot of cases, not to mention most people only hesitate for a second or less before people are honking at them.

          I never leave the second the light turns green as I see at least one car a month blow the red so late I would have been nailed if I started moving the second the light went green. I'd rather be a half a second late through the light, rather

          • I proceed as quickly as possible when light turns green, but always look to make sure there are no red light runners if I am the first. Its not hard to do, it obviously depends on field of view of the particular intersection, and often the cars are already stopped in the crossing street. But I'm not talking about just the first car, as more often than not its a person back a few cars that even has more time to react yet sits there oblivious. Yes they are distracted, but that is not excuse. Pay attention, a

            • Too many intersections in my town where you can't do that. Either buildings tight to the road or roads meet at a weird angle. The most common I see is when someone is watching traffic to turn right on red and the light changes green, they don't notice because the cross traffic doesn't slow until the last moment.

          • By "someone who got distracted" do you mean "someone who is using their cell phone"? Every light now gets fewer cars through it per cycle because half of the people waiting for it are typing on their phones and don't notice when the car in front of them leaves. Put the fucking phone down -- nobody cares that you are getting off the highway, you don't need to post it to Facebook.

            • Usually seems to be someone sight seeing off to the side because the lights take so long to cycle. Happens to me once in a while when I've got a problem stuck in my head on the way home from work. When there is traffic to watch I can stop thinking about work but harder to do sitting at a light.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Hylandr ( 813770 )

          Let's add :

          - Stopping in Merges and Yields
          - Stopping 2 or 3 car lengths from the car in front of you.
          - Avoiding the sensors in the road ( see above ) and making the light longer.
          - Stopping at Yellow lights. ( This is maddening in heavy traffic )
          - Doing 10 or 15 under the speed limit on long two lane highways
          - Not paying attention.

          On the last note, you don't need equipment to tell you when the light will be green. Use your eyes and watch the other signals.

      • In Germany, you will be sitting at a red light, and the yellow will also come on. It is the warning that it is about to turn green.

        I have seen that in several countries, in both Europe and Asia. I have also seen large countdown timers [kompas.com] that tell you how long until the light changes. That way people can make an earlier decision to brake or "go for it" when the light is turning red, and traffic flows smoother when the light turns green, since they are ready to accelerate. I have no idea why the "yellow before green" or the countdown timers are not more common, or why neither is used in America.

        • I have no idea why the "yellow before green" or the countdown timers are not more common, or why neither is used in America.

          Because you never should let the enemy know what you're about to do! Seriously though, a lot of the crosswalk signs in the U.S. do have a countdown timer, and if you can see them you can have at least some idea when the traffic lights are about to change.

          • a lot of the crosswalk signs in the U.S. do have a countdown timer

            Those are tiny, and only visible within about 50 meters of the intersection. Many countries have much bigger timers located above the lane next to the traffic light. They are visible from about 300 meters, so you can know when to brake, and when not to. You end up with fewer t-bone accidents, fewer rear-endings, and smoother traffic flow.

            • Canada has the signal change timers, I find it incredibly helpful.

              Here, we have to peek at the other directions lights, or use the crosswalk timer. Or if you like surprises, you can just stare at the light until it changes.

        • Many of the crosswalks here in Spokane, Washington have countdown timers that count down to red, or rather to yellow, as it's green, yellow, red here in the states.

          They are easily visible as you drive, without looking at your phone, which here will get you a ticket if the fuzz see you.

          The only real difficulty is that percentage of drivers that use it to 'beat the light' rather than prepare to stop. But bad drivers are a universal problem.

          And if you must watch your phone to be prepared to go at the green li
          • No kidding. I've driven enough on high-truck-traffic routes to understand just how hard it is to be a safe truck driver. It's WORK.

            Sadly, the politeness of even professional drivers seems to be going downhill. Twenty years ago, I could always count on the light flash "Come on"/"Okey-dokey" (was how I learned it) for changing lanes. Maybe it's because I'm driving a Lexus (now) instead of a beat-up Pontiac (then), but I always let them know when they're clear to move over, and I almost never get the thanks i
            • "Sadly, the politeness of even professional drivers seems to be going downhill. "

              And here we have one of the motivations that caused me to leave the industry.
              Most drivers (all classes) are mediocre, but at least try to flow, but it seems that the minority of assholes grows larger every year and becomes more aggressive.

              "Not all of us in four-wheelers are ignorant, and not everyone in a luxury car is an entitled ass."

              I'm in that same class, I drive very close to the speed limits, am courteous, and always give
              • Hehe, when I see people flying by I figure they're just bear bait. Clean 'em out for me! I do about seven over and never get any heat.

          • > And if you must watch your phone to be prepared to go at the green light, you're doing it wrong to begin with.

            This would be awesome for approaching a red light with few/no cars stopped at it. I don't really want to come to a stop if I don't have to. But I also don't want to slow to half the speed limit a 1/4 mile from a light that I didn't need to slow down for at all.

        • The yellow before green is more important in countries with a large proportion of manual transmissions. You need a little more time to get a manual car ready to go from a stop, especially on an uphill grade.
      • My observation is that the yellow before the green in Germany comes too late, it lasts a too short amount of time to be effective. It should instead come a good five seconds before the green.
      • it would be better if they did the opposite, i.e. gave you warning when the lights were going to turn red to hopefully reduce those that run red lights

      • The Germans do a lot of very sensible things, I find. In UK they really prefer to spring the green light on you as a surprise, with no warning, which means that there now are two kinds of dirvers: the ones who seem to be sitting for a few seconds, staring at the green light, trying to think what that means, before they start driving - very slowly - forward; and the ones who crane their necks to see what the light is doing in the crossing direction, so they can slam the pedal down and race forward, rearing o

      • I remember joy riding as a kid with my grandpa at work once when I was very young. Exactly this happened. The light turned green and we were suddenly rear-ended.

        The guy behind us got out of his car and was shouting expletives at us right up until he noticed that
        a) there was a 5 year old kid in the car.
        b) my grandpa was wearing his police officers uniform.

      • Oh! They're giving you a signal for when to activate launch control and put both pedals to the floor!

        That's convenient!

  • More important... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by OS2toMAC ( 1327679 ) on Monday August 15, 2016 @05:13PM (#52707479)
    How about the RT info telling the computer that the light is about to go red, and have it break automatically?

    • Re:More important... (Score:5, Funny)

      by zlives ( 2009072 ) on Monday August 15, 2016 @05:17PM (#52707511)

      or to speed up automatically

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lazlo ( 15906 )

      I was about to say the same thing. This would be freaking *huge* if it could do that.

      For a long time, what I've really wanted is for municipalities to place "yellow light" posts. Take the length of a yellow light, multiply it by the speed limit, and put up a post that distance before the far side of an intersection. That way, assuming you're going the speed limit, if the light turns yellow after you've passed the post, you know that you can maintain speed and clear the intersection before the light changes.

  • $400 an year for traffic data? better have top XM package

    • Re:$400 an year for traffic data? better have top (Score:5, Insightful)

      by msauve ( 701917 ) on Monday August 15, 2016 @05:20PM (#52707531)
      I'll just watch for the cross-traffic light to turn yellow, thanks.

      • I agree $400 per year is quite high considering the alternative, i.e. pay attention. At least this keeps the Audi engineers doing something other than cheating on emissions.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sconeu ( 64226 )

          I figured that this was only going to work when on a dynamometer. And they'd just have a defeat device to fake it for real-word driving.

        • Unfortunately, it enables Audi drivers to do other things besides paying attention to driving.

          Wait, most Audi drivers are already doing that. Carry on.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by chihowa ( 366380 )

        Which comes with the added bonus of actually paying attention to driving instead of fucking around with your phone until somebody honks (or your car beeps) to tell you that the light changed. Everybody else thanks you, too. At least everyone who isn't fucking around with their phone instead of driving.

      • I'll just watch

        Sounds like if you're watching that this technology isn't targeted at you anyway.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        What I want is a system that beeps loudly before a traffic light goes green so that idiots will drop their phone before I have to beep them.

        Then again, this is for an Audi, so it will be used to ensure that they can drive right up my chuff from the moment the light goes green.

  • Not like anyone won't try to accelerate just that extra bit sooner... of course, I suppose they already do that currently... right, carry on.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tx ( 96709 )

      I don't think this will be of any interest or make any difference to impatient drivers, who already use the obvious ways of knowing when the light is about to go green.

      On the other hand, all the slow-witted people who seem to fall asleep when the light turns red, and then take forever to start moving when it goes green, might well benefit from this. It would benefit further from a loud alarm at the 5 second mark, and maybe a flashing red display on the dash saying "FOCUS!", but maybe that's asking too much.

  • Tracking (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SumDog ( 466607 ) on Monday August 15, 2016 @05:23PM (#52707545) Homepage Journal

    So instead of trying to emit/pull data from the surroundings, it has to go up to the cloud for a database of stoplight info? WTF?!

    Not only is it useless; it give Audi even more tracking data about you. Who the fuck through this was a good idea?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TheCarp ( 96830 )

      Well how else would you implement it when nobody is transmitting the data you need in most places, and, I would bet, is even resistent to doing it. As far as I can tell, most towns take steps to make this very prediction harder than it needs to be.

      The article is wrong about this being "for impatient drivers", its for distracted drivers, to help them stop being total douchebags who sit at the green light.

      People are already ignoring the light cycle. People are already deciding the red light is time to mess wi

    • The bigger WTF is that they think that they can use some kind of warning / direction system to tell the driver that an existing warning / direction system in the street is operating.

      Talk about a solution in search of a problem.

  • I look at the green light, and when it turns yellow I'm clutchin' in first gear. Also, we have countdown timers on the walk sign already. Thanks anyway.
  • ... am pretty skeptic about this working properly or at all in some of the convoluted intersections around. Plus, what's wrong with using the old noodle to determine when my light's gonna turn green? What? So that I can be texting on my phone until the last second?

  • to cover the cost of lawsuits when this thing starts causing accidents

  • More assholes who jackrabbit off a green light like they were Funny Car dragster driving.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lgw ( 121541 )

      Green means go. It's not complicated.

      • Green means go. It's not complicated.

        It is more complicated than you think, given that some drivers also think yellow and red means "accelerate so you don't have to sit here for and additional 60 seconds".

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by lgw ( 121541 )

          Sure, but it's pretty clear that the guy who has the light is the one who's not the asshole.

  • Would rather know when it's about to go red... (Score:3)

    by Black.Shuck ( 704538 ) on Monday August 15, 2016 @05:36PM (#52707641)

    ...on approach, and if there's enough time to accelerate ahead of the yellow light.

    Perhaps in the next version.

    • Are you referring to something like these countdown timers [nobleled.com] in China? The first time I saw them, I thought it was a great idea. It takes the guesswork out of when the light changes. I wish we had them here in the US.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        in China

        You didn't have to tell us. We could tell by all the pedestrians crossing against the lights.

    • You do not need to know the time in this case, you need to know the distance.

      If there is sufficient distance to stop before the intersection when the light is yellow, you stop. Otherwise, you proceed.

  • Sounds neat and could be useful.... but like so many advances...

    Next up, car records state of all the lights and records what you are doing near every one of them (or uploads it to Audi or whatnot) and reports you to police or makes data available to police. Combine that with GPS data about where you went, how you were driving, where you were going/coming, how fast you were going, how many people were in the car, if you were touching the radio, etc, etc. Don't laugh... it is coming. And sooner than you t

  • Turning Green is the least of your worries (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Monday August 15, 2016 @05:47PM (#52707709)

    What is more important is verifying that no-one is running the red light when you enter the intersection.

    Which in the US is an all too common occurrence.

    And I really wish that some cities hadn't screwed people over by treating red light cameras as revenue sources rather than safety devices. The huge backlash against red light cameras because of shortened yellow light times has not helped road safety and probably made drivers untrusting about any future attempts to fix safety issues. Terrorism can't even come close to touching the number deaths per year cause by car crashes yet who gets all the funding?

    • What is more important is verifying that no-one is running the red light when you enter the intersection.

      This. I almost got killed last year when some idiot blew through a red that had been red long enough for two other stopped cars to clear the intersection after mine turned green, plus about 2 seconds. People just can't be bothered to obey traffic lights anymore, and the last thing we need is more people darting out the instant they see green. There's already that special breed of driver who inches half way out into the intersection when they think it's about to turn.. where's the fire son?

      • There's already that special breed of driver who inches half way out into the intersection when they think it's about to turn

        You must have better drivers around your parts then they have here. Around here, drivers creep forward when the light is red but by the time it turns green they have already lost interest and are looking at their phones or woolgathering.

    • Yes. For this reason, I think the tech is a BAD idea. Already there are smartasses who "time" the lights by eyeballing the crosswalk tickers, never thinking that some asshole on the cross-street might be gunning the gas to beat his yellow light... and misses.

      The worst accident I ever eye-witnessed was on the West Side Highway in Manhattan, some kid had just rolled his newly jacked-up sports car out from a west-side pro-shop. You couldn't miss him... revving the engine before the red light on the cross-str

      • And that's why you never, ever run or even risk running a red in NYC. The cabbies are experts at timing the lights, and they will enter the intersection the instant it turns green. And they can hit you without taking any real damage. Plus, if you don't enter the instant the light turns, everyone behind you will lean on their horn. Something I miss since I moved to Georgia, where everyone is a Nascar fan, yet wait several seconds before hitting the gas.

        • Something I miss since I moved to Georgia, where everyone is a Nascar fan, yet wait several seconds before hitting the gas.

          LOL, seriously. Do you shake your first and shout in your best Brooklyn "WHILE WE'RE YOUNG, YA IMMIGRANT!" No, in the Deep South, best probably to keep that to yourself.

    • Fuck 'em. They're running the light, it's their fault if you hit them.

      How else will they learn?

    • What is more important is verifying that no-one is running the red light when you enter the intersection. Which in the US is an all too common occurrence.

      Where snow is common, the first one or two seconds of a green don't count anyway. You've slid through a just-turned-red intersection once or twice yourself, you know somebody else can too. So you learn to pause just a moment. This habit doesn't completely clear during the summer, but it comes back come winter time again.

  • I guess this is for people with Taco Neck that can't turn their head 45 degrees to see the cross-traffic lights?

    They'd make a lot more money if, instead of charging for the service as an optional package, they enabled it by default and charged you a monthly fee to turn it off.

  • And just wait see for it to mess up big time.

  • The article I read about this mentioned that these 300,000 traffic lights are on the Internet and that's how Audi's going to receive the data. I'm hoping that the article had it wrong and these lights are just on some city intranet that Audi is going to gain access to. It would be very scary to have traffic lights online. How long would it take for someone to hack the traffic system and change all of the lights at random intervals. (Especially bad if those traffic lights happen to be hooked up to red light

  • I think we'd have a winner with that one.

  • Countdown traffic lights (Score:3)

    by enriquevagu ( 1026480 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2016 @02:04AM (#52709963)

    Rather than implementing a complex technology in every single car, there exist countries that have started to implement countdown traffic lights [toxel.com]. I have found them while driving and understood it immediately without any explanation. Much simpler, really easy and intuitive, much cheaper globally. I do not understand the approach from Audi.

    • Or people could just obey the lights and have the patients to pay attention even when the light is red without being diverted to throw a pokeball or text a friend every time they get a 2 second break behind the wheel.

    • Yes! Improve the traffic lights.

      Traffic lights are stupidly brainless. Nearly every trip I take, I end up getting stuck at a red light for nothing. There were no cars on the cross street, but the light turned red anyway.

      Often, there are also underhanded politics at work. Such as, the lights on the free "service road" (a parallel road to the main, limited access highway), are purposefully neglected because the main road is toll, and badly timed traffic lights on the service road are a way to harass p

  • If this could be used for a larger system so that the car could go at a constant speed (even if lower than the speed limit) and catch all the lights green, I guess this might save a considerable amount of fuel and pollutants by avoiding the braking and acceleration. It will also feed into my OCD and make for a more pleasant (gratifying) trip - I hate waiting at red lights. Lights would need to be synchronized though. And I guess cars without such a system will still race from intersection to intersection, w
  • Hit the gas, display countdown, then, one Mississippi, two Mississippi, ...... CRASH! at intersection as the bozo plays the new car game called "Beat the Light Clock!"
  • The other direction turns red, count to three and go. Or one, or two, whatever it is for that street. Cab drivers are experts at it.

    There might be someone running the light, but fuck it, hit them. It's their fault and you need a new car.

  • So instead of watching the road in front of them, some drivers will be watching a clock on their dashboard and waiting for it to hit 0 then blindly flooring it. I mean, these people are probably the target market for this car. I can already think of a few people I already know that will probably instantly want one.

  • "the countdown timer will disappear several seconds before the red light changes to green"
    Better make that interval random, folks. Otherwise people will just learn to complete the countdown in their heads, then step on the gas without quite yet looking up.

  • This is a bad idea. I hope I'm not the one hit by an Audi that timed it to hit the intersection just as the light changed to green at 45mph while I'm making a left turn, waiting on the other Audi coming towards me that tried to squeeze the lemon and failed. A much better idea would be to indicate, long before reaching the intersection, what speed will allow the car to reach it after it turns green instead of zooming up to it and sitting at the red. Still better would be traffic lights aware of how many cars

  • As used in Venezuela and some other latin american countries (don't know if somewhere else), there are semaphores with countdown timers, so you can see exactly in how much seconds the color will change.

    They must be more expensive to operate, but they are really useful

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