Audi is launching a brand new, state-of-the art vehicle-to-infrastructure platform (V2I) in some of its cars that is truly futuristic. This V2I platform will be able to do a lot of petty amazing stuff — including notifying drivers of how long they’ll be waiting at a red light.
This is certainly one of the first steps towards the era of connected cars, where the vehicles will talk to surrounding infrastructure and other vehicles to make driving safer and more convenient. The car will receive signal information from the city-wide traffic management systems, allowing drivers to see how long until the light turns green, among other things.
The V2I system will signal the car about the light turning red, allowing the vehicle to let off the throttle if it knows it won’t make the light, which will in turn save fuel.
The aim of this technology is to enable the cars to communicate with everything from parking lots to tollbooths to help the driver make better decisions while on the road.
Audi will be making this technology available starting next year, starting with some of its models like Q7 and A4. Although, Audi has revealed that it will launch the new technology in Las Vegas, it has not yet divulged any information on how soon it plans to roll the tech out globally.
According to Pom Malhotra, general manager of Connected Vehicles, Audi,
In the future we could envision this technology integrated into vehicle navigation, start / stop functionality and can even be used to help improve traffic flow in municipalities.
He also said that,
These improvements could lead to better overall efficiency and shorter commuting times.
Audi has been working on this technology since a couple of years. After Audi, we should expect other luxury car brands to come up with similar vehicle-to-infrastructure technologies with something better every time it is launched.
