Riding the "green wave" twice with e.solutions!
Audi connect already offers a wide range of services in which e.solutions is participating. These include online traffic information, navigation with Google Earth and hybrid radio/internet radio. But they also include the Car-to-X services, which use the swarm intelligence of the Audi fleet and enable functions such as online traffic sign and hazard information as well as on-street parking.
These existing services have now been extended to provide traffic light information. Traffic light information is linked to Audi connect Navigation & Infotainment and camera-based traffic sign recognition. Networking with the city's infrastructure, the car receives information from the portal of traffic light central computers. Starting 250 meters before the traffic light, the driver is shown a countdown in the Audi virtual cockpit and in the optional head-up display, which speed he has to choose, while adhering to the maximum permitted speed limit, in order to pass while the light is still green. If he can no longer make it through the traffic lights, the display indicates that he must stop and how long the red phase will last. This allows the driver to choose the speed to reach the traffic light when it turns green or to prepare to stop. In this way the system contributes to an anticipatory, efficient driving style and promotes a steady flow of traffic, thereby actively helping to avoid traffic jams. The system has been available since July 2019 in the Audi e-tron, A4, A6, A7, A8, Q3, Q7 and Q8 with the appropriate equipment.
Audi customers in the USA have already been using the service since the end of 2016, with the help of triggering 7000 intersections . In Germany the system is available in Audi's home town Ingolstadt and will be extended to selected European cities in the future. Audi is the first manufacturer worldwide to network its serial models with traffic lights in cities.
We at e.solutions were significantly involved in the development of the user interface, the core services and the integration of the external module and are looking forward to helping shape the innovations of tomorrow!
Published on 13.12.2019