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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.
(holds breath)
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I would like having it for me. If everyone drove like me then I'd say that would be perfect. But I definitely see your point...people would abuse it. Even with the countdown disappearing a few seconds before zero, people would time it. Oh well, stupid drivers will be stupid regardless. No timers on lights right now near me but I routinely see people who "know" when their light will turn so they'll just start creeping into the crosswalk and even significantly into the intersection in anticipation. So dumb.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world they are aware of countdown traffic lights, which provide a much simpler solution to this problem.
the big trick here isnt getting people to drive an audi, but getting them to look up from their cellphones long enough to pay attention to the car.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Dear car makers,
Instead of pushing useless gadget that nobody cares about, what about trying to develop affordable hybrid and electric vehicles? Right now, buying a hybrid mid-range car costs as much as buying a luxury car, which nobody sane would ever do. So please, focus on affordable green cars instead of bullshit toys.
Sincerely,
A Parisian stuck in the winter smog.
Video of some good progressive thrash music
so the traffic light will cater to whats best for the person in the $100k luxury car but the kid in the beater has to be at a disadvantage on teh public right of way? seems like an equal access issue to me. Whats next? priority access to the side walk for those wearing $500 hand made Italian leather shoes while those in $50 sneakers wait??
They have them in Japan too, for pedestrians. They put a shroud on them so that drivers can't see them.
I bet the reason why the display cuts out a few seconds before the lights change is that the timing isn't that accurate. Delay over the 4G network and over IP networks is variable and they probably just cut it off a bit early rather than try to make it more accurate.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
* If there is no car in front of me I still have to wait for the light to turn green (and then some in the US to avoid red light runners) /can't act like plug flow in a pipe unless you build in major automated convoy support)
* If there is a car ahead of me I still have to wait for them to move before I can move.
* If I have a car that shuts the engine down when stopped (and I have driven such cars), the engine already instantly comes on when my foot lifts from the brake pedal (and if it doesn't it won't happen with the App either)
* If you are driving in traffic you still can't beat the dynamics of all those other people (and traffic doesn't
* If it is just you on a main road then it tries to keep the traffic flowing by defaulting to green lights in your direction (and it's those pesky side road drivers who screw up your green lights)
* If it is just you on a side road then the lights will be defaulted against you anyway.
So what are they really trying to solve? They already have a bunch of sensors/cameras that can be used to sample traffic and tell you what the current traffic patterns are.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
And they usually say "move on to the next car - nothing to see here".
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?
I would like to see the countdown until the light is red, and if I'll make it at my current speed. This could help to save gas, as drivers could reduce acceleration sooner. Of course someone would soon hack this to tell you how fast you need to go to make the green (or yellow) light...
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.
That is for the freeways, where it's important to pick up that speed to be at par w/ the rest of traffic. Doesn't mean you do that on city streets
The most useful thing IMO would be the yellow-to-green much of europe has.
This is part of a greater picture of progress. In the same way that perimeter sensors on cars that alert drivers of unseen objects are actually a stop on the way to automation, this too will ultimately serve as a stopgap for automation.
Go buy a Renault Zoé instead.
- it's done by one of your French companies.
- the newer Zoe platform features a 44kWh battery that should be okay for 200+ km between charges (rated for 125km/h).
(the previous one had a 22kWh battery, rated for 125 km. I still manage to get ~100 km out of the Zoé of the local Car Sharing copmany even when I'm driving like an idiot).
- you can either buy just the car and rent the battery (and the car comes rather cheap between 15'000 and 25'000+ EUR depending on the options), or you can add ~8'000 EUR and buy your own battery.
Hybrids motors are extremely complex and that comes at a a cost.
(you basically got both disadvantages of an ICE engine - complex delicate mechanical device
combined with the disadvantage of an electric drive - big expensive complex battery and ancillary electronics ; also an electric motor which, although cheap, is much bigger than the standard alternator of an ICE.
And on top of that, a slightly more complex transmission - specially on hybrid that can do both serial and parallel hybrids).
Because of this complexity, cost is never going to go down that much.
It's a nice stop-gag technology to diminish smog problems, but electric drive is the long term solution.
(Specially in a country like France that doesn't rely much on fossil energy to produce its electricity).
Electric cars - outside of the expensive battery and its electronics - can be even a bit cheaper :
- the car tends to be much lighter for better efficiency. Depending how it's done it might drive the price slightly up (Tesla and their space alloys) or down (the newer 44kWh Zo is lighter than the older one, without being more expensive).
- an electric motor is dead simple and much cheaper than the mechanical complexity of an ICE (it's just a glorified spool of wire, attached to a fixed ratio gear. That's why Tesla can afford to slap a 2nd one on their 4-wheel drive vehicle (the xx"D" series), and that's why most european high speed train can afford electric motors on each of their wagon.)
(This is opposed to energy storage. On a gaz powered car, energy ist stored in a glorified jug with a cap and a tap. Whereas an electic car require a complex chemistry in the battery and complex electronic to control both the charging of the car, and the power delivery to the motor).
Cost of batteries is going down, as car companies invest in mega-factories - Tesla is building one in Texas, Renault is building one in France - and as the demand for lithium batteries increases in modern technology (laptops, lithium-powered power tools, etc.).
Network of charger is increasing.
Mennekes connector is becoming standard accross Europe.
Tesla is building their own network of superchargers.
In France I've seen chargers in Highway rest areas.
In Switzerland, nearly all parkings in big cities have charging spot.
European countries burn a lot less fossils to produce electricity. (France relies on its nuclear power, Switzerland has endless supply of hydro-electric. Northern Europe is developping green sourse like solar, etc.)
Future is in electric cars.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
so the traffic light will cater to whats best for the person in the $100k luxury car but the kid in the beater has to be at a disadvantage on teh public right of way?
Nope. The traffic light still waits all the same for every one.
The only difference is that the driver of the luxury car gets the privilege of having the wating counter of the traffic light directly displayed on their dashboard.
(And the car will be able to shut down and restart the engine during the wait on its own if it is economic to do so).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The trouble with these technologies is they don't offer any value to users. There is nothing (I|V)2V offers which is both worth doing and can't be achieved with CV and common signage.
All these system do is provide windfalls for technology firms lobbying for legislative mandates while encouraging mass surveillance and criminal exploitation of technology. Technology for technologies sake isn't just a waste of time and money but also inherently dangerous.
I believe NHTSA is being knowingly dishonest and misleading both the public and policy makers in pursuing their V2V aims.
Their material and estimates fails to take into consideration current commercial deployment of CV sensor technologies for AEB/CTA with its avoidance estimates of which there is significant overlap. They are knowingly providing worthless data to justify their policy recommendations.
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
Just keep "adding features".
Eventually, you'll meet the guillotines.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Who cares about stop light? I need a count-down on the yellow light, and it needs to be in milliseconds... and I only needed where the red light camera is installed.
Forget the traffic lights, I want to know when it can talk to the casinos.
Stop lights in the Philippines have large LED readouts next to them which count down the time to turn.
Red LEDs at a red light count down the time until it turns green. Green LEDs at a green light count down the time until it turns red.
Seems to work well. People behave themselves and don't generally do stupid things.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
The last time I was in Germany, in the early 90s, the yellow-to-green thing was pretty annoying. If you were first at the light and you didn't start rolling when that light turned yellow, everyone would start honking at you. Didn't matter that you technically couldn't go until it turned green, that didn't stop the impatient ones from laying on the horn.
If someone is so anxious about the red light turning green that they need a countdown to ease the anxiety then I'm thinking the problem isn't that a countdown is missing in their life. Why are they in such a state so that they are anxious about the light turning in the first place? There are a few cases where I could see a reason for being anxious such as being late for a job interview or wedding. But if you are anxious at every red light that you come to then I'm thinking that what you really need isn't a timer in your car but either a change in lifestyle or some therapy because you're headed for a breakdown.
Traffic in China is insane. Don't drive there.
But many of their traffic lights count down - which I think is awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Granted some lights are complicated, with all those left turn lanes. But seriously, just wait your turn. Relax.
That is for the freeways, where it's important to pick up that speed to be at par w/ the rest of traffic. Doesn't mean you do that on city streets
Oh, what a load of bullshit. When pretty much every other car entering the freeway can't even come close to sub 3-second 0-60MPH performance, there's not a damn reason electric vehicles should be using that metric as the standard, especially when range is the far more important metric with cars that run on batteries. This whole race to performance reeks of bigger-dick syndrome, and you know it.
Don't forget those freeway on-ramps also have to be designed to allow a multi-ton 18-wheeler to safely get on a freeway, so even the slowest mass-produced car will have plenty of concrete and asphalt.
I've been talking to traffic signals for years.
Have gnu, will travel.
I carry a tool for dealing with these exact situations. Chances are good that you have one, too. I keep mine in between the ring and index fingers of my left hand, and use it to silently signify my disdain for the actions of those around me.
Kid-proof tablet..
All valid points, but:
I can see drivers approaching a red light looking at the display instead of looking at where they are going
This is why Audi has the countdown in a head up display
Thanks Audi for encouraging drivers to press on the accelerator at the end of the countdown regardless of what is happening in front of them. I mean, what could go worng?
Don't stop where the ink does.
Interestingly, not on TGVs which are among the most common high speed trains in Europe (470 trains). These trains have power cars at both ends.
On the other hand, German ICE (InterCity Express) and Swiss ICN (InterCity Neigezug) both use the "no power cars / each wagon with an electric motor" configuration (though not on 1st class wagons in the swiss case to diminish noise).
- This gives them tremendous power enabling them to climb steeper slopes than normal powercars (which is useful in hilly pre-Alpine regions)
- This gives them very efficient regenerative braking (In switzerland, two train coming down from the Lötschberg tunnel can entirely power one train climbing up to it).
I've also seen it on Czech Pendolinos.
I seem to remember that Austria's ÖSB has also such configuration, but I'm not 100% sure.
But funny that you mention: seems indeed that the French TGV are almost the only high speed trains not doing it.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
In the UK at least the amber light means proceed with caution so basically, you can go but don't run over a pedestrian!
I was in southern Germany in 2008. I loved the yellow-to-green light; no one jumped the gun and no one honked. For those who aren't aware, about one second before the red light turns green, the yellow also comes on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... The red is still on, so you are not supposed to move yet.
You know I hadn't thought about it, but now that you mention it, I don't recall it being bad in Stuttgart. I was in Stuttgart from 83-87, then in Berlin from 88-91. It was in Berlin where they would honk.