Ever had that moment where the universe aligns and you catch all the robots green, never having to stop once? Audi is making it all the likelier with their Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory (GLOSA), which shows the driver the ideal speed for reaching the next traffic light on green. This functionality has been present in certain cities in North America since February, and now it’s also heading to Europe.

GLOSA joins another functionality from Audi - “Time-to-Green”, available in the States for the past two years. With this, a driver who has stopped at a robot receive a countdown in the Audi virtual cockpit or head-up display for the seconds to the next green phase. This service is now available at more than 5000 intersections in the USA, for example in cities including Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Portland.

Both Time-to-Green and GLOSA will be activated for the start of operation in Ingolstadt, Germany in selected Audi models. These include all Audi e-tron models and the A4, A6, A7, A8, Q3, Q7 and Q8 to be produced from mid-July. The prerequisite is the Audi connect Navigation & Infotainment package and the optional camera-based traffic sign recognition.

With the Traffic Light Information function, drivers are more in control. They drive more efficiently and are more relaxed because they know 250 meters ahead of a traffic light whether they will catch it on green,” says Andre Hainzlmaier, head of Development of Apps, Connected Services and Smart City at Audi.

Why is this function becoming available in Europe two years later than in the USA? Hainzlmaier notes that the challenges for the serial introduction of the service are much greater in Europe than, for example, in the USA, where urban traffic light systems were planned over a large area and uniformly. “In Europe, by contrast, the traffic infrastructure has developed more locally and decentrally – with a great variety of traffic technology,” explains Hainzlmaier. “How quickly other cities are connected to this technology depends above all on whether data standards and interfaces get established and cities digitalize their traffic lights.”

Audi is working to offer Traffic Light Information in further cities in Germany, Europe, Canada and the USA in the coming years, with no word yet on South Africa. In the large east Chinese city of Wuxi, Audi and partners are testing networks between cars and traffic light systems in the context of a development project.