Subscribe to RSSVideo: New Traffic Light System
Audi this week unveiled its new experimental tool to enable motorists to beat traffic lights.
It would let you know the speed to travel so you can go through nothing but green lights.
The optimal speed is displayed on the car’s dashboard and the system is connected with the city’s traffic signals.
It has experimented with signals in Ingolstadt, Germany and says the system not only reduces waiting times at lights but saves on fuel consumption.
Audi says road traffic today is still controlled largely with yesterday’s technology – at the expense of the environment.
When a car stops at a red light, it uses approximately 0.02 litres of fuel when it pulls away. This corresponds to roughly 5 grams of CO2.
In urban traffic, which in Germany is regulated by roughly 60,000 traffic signal systems, the 50 million cars in Germany emit roughly 15 million tons of CO2 or approximately 20 percent of their total emissions.
Audi says these emissions can be reduced if the traffic lights initiate contact with the vehicles.
Audi engineers and its partners researched a new traffic light algorithm that is designed to be self-learning. It controls 46 of the roughly traffic light systems in Ingolstadt.
The results: Prior to the optimization, the vehicles had to stop at every fourth light on average; now it is only every fifth light.
3 Comments
Great idea, difficult implementation. Would need a useful technical standardisation first, and good real-time communication (otherwise, users would just ignore it after a while when the last adaptive switch or signal phase realignment makes the recommended speed plough them straight into the next red light despite the promises.
Anyone know whether “green wave” optimisation (without connected cars) is already used anywhere in Auckland?
Such a system should be established for public transportation first.
Agree with Johans.
Bugger the cars, get this system on the buses! Start with the Link.