By Linda Farneth
We’ve all done it at one time or another, tried to beat that pesky red light. Some of us manage to get through the intersection only to panic looking in the side and rear view mirrors, convinced we will be the one person the local cop catches, all while other drivers are submersed in their cell phones or driving in the wrong lane…
But I digress. Well I’m sure you’ve tried a time or two to manage speed whether it be to speed up or slow down just so you could avoid putting on the breaks and coming to a full stop at the traffic lights on the way to work or back home.
Well Audi owners have had help for a few years with some technology that not only monitors the current speed limit and location of traffic lights but it also suggests a safe speed to travel to avoid those pesky red lights. It’s called, GLOSA which stands for Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory. Those tech people love their acronyms!
Audi is the first manufacturer to launch Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory (GLOSA) in the U.S.
Wait there’s more; Audi also has equipped some of their cars with TLI you get the TTG for each light. See how I made that look complicated by using techy phrases to keep you in the dark? Seriously I think writers get paid by Google to use all acronyms so people will use their search engine more. Oh sorry I went off into Linda-Land again.
Simply put TLI stands for Traffic Light Information, an Audi connect PRIME feature available on select 2017 and 2018 models. Simply put it gives a count down when you stop at a red light, that tells you how long it will take for the light to turn green. (Ya the second half of that statement probably was redundant but I’ve been reading tech stuff all day and felt the need to oversimplify, sorry)
Anyway, car companies call this Time-to-green. Ironically though they name it TLI instead of TTG! Go figure, I guess that’s why people who assign technical names, make the big bucks and we don’t!
But for you techies don’t run away, here’s the techy version from the boring press release that was sent out of the governors office recently;
Traffic Light Information, an Audi connect PRIME feature available on select 2017, 2018, and newer models, enables the car to communicate with the infrastructure in certain cities and metropolitan areas across the U.S.
When one of these select Audi models approaches a connected traffic light, it receives real-time signal information from the traffic management system that monitors traffic lights via the on-board 4G LTE data connection. When the light is red, the TLI feature will display the time remaining until the signal changes to green in the instrument cluster in front of the driver or in the head-up display (if equipped). This “time-to-green” information helps reduce stress by letting the driver know approximately how much time remains before the light changes.
Future iterations of V2I technology could include integration with the vehicle’s start/stop function, optimized navigation routing, and other predictive services. All of these services are designed to help reduce congestion and enhance mobility on crowded roadways.
So back to the not-so-techy people here, you have this technology on Audi cars that helps you regulate speed to avoid red lights and even counts down to green light for you but wait, there’s a catch, you have to be driving in a area where the traffic lights play well with your Audi Technology.
Now here’s the reason for that boring press release from the governors office, Virginia is finally catching up to states like Dallas, Denver, Gainesville, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City, Orlando, Portland, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. who already have this technology in their traffic lights.
February 20, 2019: “Virginia Secretary of Transportation Shannon Valentine, Audi of America, and Traffic Technology Services (TTS) announced that more than 1,450 traffic signals in the Northern Virginia area now share real-time data with Audi’s Traffic Light Information (TLI) technologies, including Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory (GLOSA) and “time-to-green.”
Now if I hadn’t given you the previous information would you be able to make sense out of all that? But now that you know what all those terms mean you can get excited about this news right? At least you can if you’re lucky enough to own a newer model Audi equipped with GLOSA and TLI. (or TTG as I think it should be called)
So there you have it. Attached below you’ll find the full press release in its raw form for you techies to enjoy and for those of you who are more visual, here’s a video showing you how it works. (with some cool weird tech music too)
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