Earth Equity News

Audis Commune with Traffic Lights to Cut Fuel Waste and Congestion. Posted by Adam Vaughan, SmartPlanet, September 22, 2008. “Braking for red lights at the last minute could become a thing of the past if Audi has its way. The German car giant is trialling a new Travolution project in its home town of Ingoldstadt to see if cars able to wirelessly 'talk' with traffic lights could cut fuel waste and congestion. Drivers in the experiment are alerted when lights are due to go green by a dashboard screen [pictured in the post]. The same display also calculates the speed they need to maintain to get through the current green phase of the lights. Theoretically, this means better traffic flow and less fuel wasted by engines idling at lights. Audi's not the first to tackle idling engines -- you can already buy cars from the likes of Citroen and BMW which automatically cut the engine out and in when you're in stop-start traffic. Audi's pilot scheme involves modified A5 and A6 Avants and 46 adapted lights to discover if the concept has legs. As the project grows, 20 more cars and 50 further lights will be added.”