Audi Wants to Take the “Stop” Out of Stoplight

by Benjamin Jones on October 30, 2008

Anyone who’s every done a little ecodriving will know that the worst thing in the world is a stop light. Unlike a stop sign, they’re not predictable, and sometimes leaving you waiting indefinitely or slamming on the brakes to avoid running through. That’s why a lot of ecodrivers will invest a lot of energy into knowing their routes and trying to anticipate lights. However, Audi would like to change this with their new HUD.

How is this possible? Well, Audi has ingeniously developed an in car system that communicates with upcoming red lights to see how long it will be until the light turns green and what speed you need to drive at to make sure you don’t get there beforehand. This will prevent you from wasting gas and hopefully from getting annoyed with the tireless stop and go. Check out these images for a pictorial description:

Of course, you’ll have to realize that some drivers may not know what the hell is going on and get pissed off, but I’m hoping that most people are a little more patient than that and will be happy to see that they aren’t stopping for the light either. On that point, the Dailymail article makes an interesting point:

Kate Dixon of Audi UK said that if a minimum of ten per cent of cars in any given town were fitted with the technology, all road users would notice an improvement in traffic levels.

This is definitely an interesting point. While I wonder how many traffic lights are equipped with the necessarily technology across world markets, this is definitely an interesting technology that could do a lot to smooth out traffic and reduce fuel consumption.

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1 Terry October 30, 2008 at 3:09 pm

This is great! I’m constantly amazed at drivers who rush up to red lights only to wait for the green and then stomp on the gas. I often lag behind and catch the light as it goes green and then go ahead of them until they catch me again. I suspect they’re the same people who moan over the price of gas and how few mpg they get! They are the ones who will be truly annoyed when 10% of us get and use this technology.

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