Audi pilot program tells drivers how to squeeze the lemon

Though we're hesitant to believe something this fantastic could actually be implemented in real life, word on the pavement has it that Audi is currently running a pilot program that informs motorists "how fast to drive to catch a green light." Over in Ingolstadt, Germany, 50 traffic lights have been equipped with sensors that beam information to specially equipped whips; the network of "smart" signals not only "adapts to traffic patterns to deliver optimum light switching," but gives drivers a heads-up in order to get 'em through lights and cut down on idling / pollution / road rage. We can just hear those red light camera appeals now: "But judge, my car told me to do it!"

[Image courtesy of NOLA]

[switchbitch @ Jul 23rd 2008 6:49AM]

I prefer slicing the tomato.

[Mr.Tech @ Jul 23rd 2008 7:19AM]

None of you can beat the line Engadget just said "But judge, my car told me to do it!" haha... it cracks me up

[Daniel @ Jul 23rd 2008 6:55AM]

The pic shows a porsche cayenne, not a audi q7

[Ryback @ Jul 23rd 2008 8:14AM]

And Canal St is in Miamisburg, Ohio. Not Ingolstadt!
btw..who said it was a picture of a Q7 in Ingolstadt?

[austin @ Jul 23rd 2008 8:32AM]

but its a really cool picture of the light being red and yellow at the same time.

and the Q7 and Cayenne are very similar cars. same engine. same chassis. same company.

[Dan @ Jul 23rd 2008 2:45PM]

@austin:

Almost...but not quite. Porsche owns a majority stake in VAG, but not the whole company. Also, the Q7 offers a 4.2L V8 that the Cayenne doesn't, and there some powerplants from the Cayenne not offered in the Q7 (e.g. 4.8L V8). But for the most part, they're very similar vehicles with a lot of shared DNA.

[V.I. @ Jul 23rd 2008 6:34PM]

@ Ryback

With the look of the palm trees, I think its safe to say that its Florida and not Ohio...

More than 1 city has a Canal street.

[spstreckfus @ Jul 23rd 2008 7:27PM]

Actually, you're both wrong. That is a shot from Canal Street in New Orleans. Check the bottom of the article. It says the image is from NOLA and links to a NOLA.com blog.

[Kobe_No_Means_No @ Jul 23rd 2008 6:53AM]

I bet it's programmed to be over-conservative though. My Mercedes comes with parking sensors, and when it signals I'm too close to something I'm at least still one foot away.

[Hancock @ Jul 23rd 2008 7:26AM]

yeah, it's not gonna be like: "Time to catch next green light is 5 seconds. Please accelerate to 150mph immediately in order to make it."

[Ryan Trevisol @ Jul 23rd 2008 8:09AM]

Right well I would think it would only alert you if you can "safely" (read: 5mph over limit) make the light. I'd find that useful, though I just wish they would standardize the timed crosswalk signs, those work equally as well.

http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/505/images/pedsignals.jpg
At least in South Florida, you can count on the crosswalk turning from "blinking orange man" to "solid orange man" to coincide with a yellow light.

[Koen @ Jul 23rd 2008 7:01AM]

I know that in the Netherlands a similar system is implemented. Only do they use common roadsigns that indicate how fast you should drive to catch the following green light. This system makes more sense to me as it is not car dependent and usable for every driver.

I don't know if it is common practice or a pilot project, but it worked fairly well.

[Bert @ Jul 23rd 2008 7:18AM]

We have a few streets like that here, in Montreal, Canada, However there are far too few. In the areas that do have it I will set my cruise control to the correct speed and voila! I don't know why cities don't put more of these zones in.

Actually I do know why, because they will loose money! Cities use speeding, red-light-running, parking, etc. fines as a source of income. They don't see it as a means to deter people.

Some cities are now complaining and altering their red-light camera policies because it is costing them more money to install and maintain or rent the cameras that the revenue they generate. People know that at the intersection of Main and Church there is a camera, so they don't run the light anymore.

The same goes for traffic lights. Some traffic lights are configured intentionally to force you (a percentage of you) to either speed up (and get a fine) or try to run the light (and get a fine).

It's nice to see a company trying to help the driver get through the daily grind.

One way to improve the system would be to tie it in to the GPS/Sat Nav system, so that it could learn the light patterns on your frequent commutes. It would probably take 50-75-100 runs to get a reliable timing, but it would certainly be an intersesting development.

I don't know if it would be possible to gather information from the induction loops that are found at many intersections.

[Josh @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:18AM]

The idea you mention seems interesting. The future of GPS depends on wireless internet services - as this article: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=526&doc_id=157613&f_src=flffour points out.

How far can those services and applications go? as far as consumers want to go.

[collegekid13 @ Jul 23rd 2008 7:03AM]

finally a way to let me keep going fast. bout time

[The Aggie CEO @ Jul 23rd 2008 7:10AM]

yea so here in NC a lot of the light cameras have been removed due to them being found unconstitutional..........lol

crazy

[Adderz @ Jul 23rd 2008 7:18AM]

How idotic, they are effectively promoting speeding and dangerous driving. As it stands it seems only Audi's will have this, so they will be swerving in and out of traffic to "make it".

[momotarosan @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:47AM]

instead of more intelligent cars...maybe we should have more intelligent stoplights

[Wicker24 @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:46PM]

Or more intelligent drivers!!

[Mani @ Jul 23rd 2008 8:14AM]

Over here in Bangalore we have a much simpler system... a traffic light "countdown" timer which tells you much time time the lights are gonna stay green... and when its red, it tells you much time you have to make that quick phone call or get out of your car to remove that bug from the windshield or even bargain with the traffic signal hawker selling various oddities from ear buds to LED flashlights. When the "red" time is more than 60 seconds, people usually turn off their engines to save gas... When it approaches 10 seconds, people start their engines and by the time it hits zero, the guys in the front tear off like a Kimi Raikkonen start from Pole position :-)

[Abhinav @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:16AM]

lol dude... we're talking abt smart sensors that are able to adapt themselves and give the driver more info about how to g opast an intersection...
count on this making it to india in the next 75-100 years

[Shannin @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:48AM]

shutting off your car to save gas is pointless as your going to burn more fuel to start it back up then you would if you let it idol

[Mani @ Jul 23rd 2008 10:12AM]

@Shannin: I beg to differ. Shutting off engine and restarting definitely saves gas over idling... the question is the duration... some say even 10 seconds of idling saved is worth the restart... but i would prefer to turn off the engine if the timer says 60 seconds. more here:

http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=22292

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/09/treehugger_home.php

[OX4 @ Jul 23rd 2008 8:20AM]

What a way to over-complicate things. In DC they've finally started installing pedestrian countdown timers for crossing the road, and they work just as well for cars. As you approach the intersection you can see you can see how many seconds you have until the yellow light. I've actually slowed down at 1-2 seconds knowing that I'll have to run a yellow/red light if I continue. But, if Audi owners want to pay an exorbitant amount of money for something the rest of us get for free...oh...well that's the mark of an Audi owner anyway, isn't it?

[hayley @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:33AM]

thats what i was going to say... most of the traffic lights in china are like that, it counts down how long until the light changes. if china can have those, why can't we, without having to buying audis?

[peter @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:15AM]

this has been done several times in different ways
but it wont help...

the space junk?

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/20/refrigerator-sized-device-to-be-heaved-into-space/

[BratPAQ @ Jul 23rd 2008 8:31AM]

car: "drive 100MPH to catch the green light"
driver: "but theres a slow car in front of me?"
car: "drive 100MPH to catch the green light"
driver: "ok! ok!"
**BAM!!!!**

[Kris @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:15AM]

In a few years....

Car: Increasing speed to effectively catch next green light..
You: No car, I live here.
Car: Speed increased.
You: I wanna stop now.
Car: That would mean hitting a red light.
You: Stupid Car.
Car: Now you're never gonna be allowed to stop buddy!
You: I'm sorry.
Car: Its too late.

[Abuzar Baloach @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:16PM]

Kris, I'm sorry but that was just awkward and not funny at all.

[bartoron @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:05AM]

A general rule of thumb is that if you pull onto a street and the light is already green, you should expect to arrive at a yellow or red light. If you see the light turn green while you're driving along that road, then it'll most likely still be green by the time you get to the light.

[fashionista @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:17AM]

Hey, I know how to avoid traffic congestion: WALK or RIDE A BIKE.

[Stellar Developer @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:23AM]

If it could only tell ppl that they can turn right on red

[Fred @ Jul 23rd 2008 10:59AM]

Yeah, boy I know I can't wait to ride a bike to my meeting all the way across town. I'm sure it'll make a great impression on my potential customers when I show up all sweaty and nasty from being on a bicycle for 2 hours. Plus, I get to show off my package with those awesome shorts!

Think before you speak, just because cars are the new evil thing in your mind doesn't mean we don't still need them. The system is designed to help cars conserve gas because once you hit the sweet spot you aren't speeding up, slowing down, and stopping all the time.

[Lars @ Jul 23rd 2008 10:19AM]

We've had similar systems in Sweden for 20+ years, but safer - billboard signs tell all drivers what speed to keep to ride the green wave. This speed is of course always lower than or equal to the speed limit.

[patsy @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:47AM]

VW already did that over two decades ago--more like three, actually. I remember some Passat and Audi models of the early 80s had an LED mini traffic light on the dash that communicated with roadside beacons to indicate the color of the next traffic light at the current speed. This of course only worked in one or two cities, and I believe was ventually abandoned. But it's definitely not a new idea.

[Mphsranes @ Jul 23rd 2008 10:27AM]

Car: Do not try catch the Red Light. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Driver : What truth?
Car: There is no Red light
Driver: Whoa!!

(As inspired from the movie Matrix!!)

[Fred @ Jul 23rd 2008 10:18AM]

They used to just do this with signs. I'm glad we could overcomplicate this process through the wonders of technology! (No, really, I am!)

Any Tucsonans out there may remember a stretch of Ina Road between about Oracle and maybe Thornydale (?) that was posted with 45MPH signs that said if you did 45 you'd be sync'ed with the lights and catch them. It worked beautifully.

[jeadly @ Jul 23rd 2008 10:48AM]

Uh, is anyone else thinking about the other side of the light? The system may tell you to slow down because you're not making this cycle. But if you drive 35 instead of 50 you'll hit the next green to come around.

[Max @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:14AM]

I've seen this in Germany before, years ago, in a suburb of Dusseldorf. Lit signs on the side of the road showed how many km/h to drive to arrive at a green light at the intersection. If it wasn't practical, the signs went dark, IIRC. I thought it was very clever.

They also had road sensors that changed the lights for you if nobody was approaching from the direction that currently had the green. You'd approach the intersection, see the lights change for you, and by the time you got there your direction would go green.

The "red and yellow" lights are ubiquitous in Germany too, and mean that the light is about to change to green. They really don't like wasting time there!

[Brian @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:37AM]

OHIO? NOLA...
Dude thats neutral ground and palm trees.
Thats unmarked graves of Irish working for pennies in mud to dig that canal cuz they were more worthless than slaves. The dirty dirty, the double D, the Big Easy, the Crescent City... NOLA

[ShadowKain @ Jul 23rd 2008 11:54AM]

Hahaha, if this gets over the the U.S. I can see New Jersey Drivers STILL sitting in rush hour throwing the finger. Neat concept though, I like it.

[Shinigami @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:20PM]

How about a simple timer till red/green light? We have these in Kyiv, Ukraine, come see yourself :)

[hitjim @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:07PM]

the thing that scares me the most is that with automation like this in areas where safety is so hit-and-miss as it is... is that when something goes wrong, it will go TERRIBLY wrong.

Here, hopefully the redundancy and safeguards of the system are given adequate attention.

There are definitely ways we can use technology to improve flow of traffic... but it's a little disheartening to see that green right turn arrows are necessary for people to figure out that they can safely turn right when the crosstraffic is turning left. Admittedly, I've only run into 2 lights like that in my city... but it still made me a little sad for the intelligence level of the average driver.

[BigD145 @ Jul 23rd 2008 2:03PM]

Stupid. I've almost gotten in a nasty accident for putting my foot on the gas when my light turned green. Imagine the number of near misses with this sh!t?

[thedesolate1 @ Jul 23rd 2008 2:07PM]

I can imagine all the accidents in Manhattan if it were implemented here... not to mention drawing unnecessary police attention.

[Dan @ Jul 23rd 2008 2:50PM]

So, you're the jerk who stops in front of me on a green light in the capitol, for fear of going through a yellow? :) The yellow light is meant for you to go through, just not so much a "stale" yellow. Besides...you do know Metro PD doesn't do traffic enforcement, right?

[Dan @ Jul 23rd 2008 2:51PM]

Above was in re to OX4's comment above. (why didn't it...? Nevermind.)

[frank @ Jul 23rd 2008 8:41PM]

In my part of the world, "to squeeze the lemon" means to pee. It's amazing what cars can do these days!