Audi becomes the first automaker to debut a vehicle to infrastructure technology that you can buy today with its new Traffic Light Information system.
TLI, for short, is enabled by a partnership between Audi and the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Southern Nevada, the first partnership of its kind.
RTC shares real time traffic light timing information with Audi's which then beams the data into supported vehicles via the Audi Connect service already present.
In the car, the data manifests as a timer displayed in the Virtual Cockpit digital instrument cluster that countdowns the time until the light turns green.
Armed with this information, drivers can make better decisions about how to approach traffic lights and what to do with their attention while waiting to move again.
Knowing that I had up to two minutes to wait allowed me to take my eyes off of the red light for moment and relax just a bit.
When Virtual Cockpit's display is showcasing other information, such as navigation maps, the Traffic Light timer gets pushed down into the lower right corner.
On vehicles with a head-up display, the TLI timer can also be projected onto the windshield.
Traffic Light Information is currently available on the 2017 Audi A4 and Q7 models. However, it only works in the Southern Nevada region serviced by RTC.