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Audi Cars Now Talk To Stop Lights In Vegas (ieee.org)
Audi says its cars can now tell drivers how many seconds remain until the traffic light turns green. It's the first commercial offering of vehicle-to-infrastructure communication in the United States, it adds. From a report, submitted by an anonymous reader: Of course, nobody would pay much extra for an electronic gadget that just lowered your stoplight waiting anxiety. But this feature is just testing the waters; bigger applications are in view. The cars -- recently manufactured Audi A4 and Q7 models signed onto Audi's prime connection service -- communicate with the Las Vegas traffic management system via 4G LTE, the standard mobile phones use. The countdown appears on the dashboard or heads-up display, then shuts off a few seconds before the light changes (presumably to keep drivers from getting mesmerized). Audi manages the transfer of data with the help of its partner, Traffic Technology Services (TTS), of Beaverton, Ore. The plan is to eventually give drivers the information they need to make fairly ambitious predictions, like choosing the right speed to go sailiing through several green lights in a row. Or the system might bypass the driver and go straight to the engine's "start-stop" system, shutting it down for a long count, then starting it up again seconds before getting a green light.
Some ignoramus will jump the light and kill someone.
Well by all means, let's keep cheering on the 0-60MPH race being championed in the electric vehicle world right now, because ludicrous speeds are all that matters. Fuck safety.
100% instant torque and a stoplight countdown timer built into the fucking dashboard...what could possibly go wrong?
The reason why the stoplights for perpendicular traffic lanes have "blinders" on them is because people's reaction to the light switching colors is a consideration of the time on Yellow Lights.
If you have some drivers with Asymmetric information advantage: the yellow light times will be based on the general public's behavior, and a subset of that public will start moving into the intersection earlier due to the lack of surprise improving their reaction time to the light switch.
I can see a few problems with this:
I can see drivers approaching a red light looking at the display instead of looking at where they are going
Jumping the red - knowing that it will be changing green soon - this will increase chance of collisions from people running the red the other way.
Increase chance of pedestrians getting run over