Audi is working on a system that uses Wi-Fi to communicate with traffic signals to ensure that you always hit green while going down a straightaway. The system tells drivers how fast to drive in order to make each traffic signal on the green. It will reduce idling at stoplights and make people quite happy as they tool, unperturbed, down the streets of major European capitals.
This won’t work magically, it will probably require the user to adjust their driving speed. Who really wants to adjust their driving speed only to gain a few mpg? On the highway, if the speed limit is 70mph, what speed do most drive? Are any of them driving 55mph because they get the best mileage at that speed?
Even if driving at a slower speed gets you to the same point in the same amount of time because you eliminate red lights, the issue is that it requires users to change their habits.
Also, this would require broadcasting data from each traffic light. Getting that hardware put into each light isn’t going to be an easy task, but the benefits of something like this are huge if they can get everyone to cooperate.
By the way, if they can show that this will reduce congestion, the federal government will pay 80% of the cost that cities incur implementing this system. I hope Audi licenses this out and allows people to purchase an in car device that anyone can use and not just those purchasing a new Audi.
There’s the other issue – how long will it take to recoup the cost of the device from gas mileage savings? Will it be noticeable?
I’m basically not thrilled by this because they haven’t explained how they’ll deal with the biggest issues, the technology behind it isn’t hard at all to tackle.
So all the cars would have to be Audi’s or at least have that capability. That doesn’t seem plausible to me at all.
Or we could always just use more one way streets, which, when lights are timed correctly, will never make you stop at any more than one light as long as you follow the speed limit.
It isn’t that complicated and I’ve been complaining about this for years, but everyone always argues that then you would have to drive around the block if you miss a turn, but who cares because the lights that you miss will add up to much more than the time it takes to drive around the block.