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“How long is this d*** light, anyway?”

You’ve been sitting for what feels like five minutes. It has to end soon right? Every other lane on the road has had their turn, but you’re still sitting there. Maybe you could have checked that text message a minute ago, but it’s about to be your turn. You think. Right?

What if the computer in your car could just connect with the computer in that light? Couldn’t this save you a lot of stress and annoyance?

Audi sure thinks so. They’ve developed the first ever piece of vehicle to infrastructure technology, known simply as Traffic Light Information.

For right now, the technology does exactly what the name implies. It connects with the computer system managing traffic lights, and tells your car how many seconds before the light changes. So if you want to find a new Pandora playlist, you can make sure you have adequate time at a traffic stop.

Not world-changing in and of itself, but pretty convenient.

With this technology installed in more vehicles, the information sharing between cars and traffic lights could expand; the information would not just be useful for you, it could help direct traffic more intuitively, optimizing light timing and shortening wait times. Imagine a world where you never had to sit at a two-minute red light with no one else around.

“This feature represents Audi’s first step in vehicle-to-infrastructure integration,” said Pom Malhotra, General Manager, Connected Vehicles. “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.”

Traffic Light Information will be available on 2017 Audi Q7, A4 and A4 allroad® models built after June 1^st 2016.

Carolyn Briggs

I grew up on the road. As a child, my family took regular trips from Wisconsin to both coasts. That's how I've seen most of this country — through the window of a car. Years later, I still feel that excitement when I toss my bags in the trunk and get behind the wheel. That's how seeing something new always begins. I've scaled mountains, dived with sharks, and stepped to the very edge of the Grand Canyon, all because I spent hours in a car. This site combines my passion for the road with my actual talent — communication and journalism. In college I rose to the position of managing editor for The Badger Herald, the largest independent student newspaper in the country at the time. I spent a year after graduating in social media marketing before moving off the grid to explore the wild beauty of West Virginia.