The German carmaker Audi is testing technology that lets computers inside traffic lights talk to computers inside cars. This exchange allows cars to calculate which driving speeds will minimize the number of red lights they encounter.
Better still, according to an article in Wired, if enough cars start using the technology, the lights could start inferring traffic volume and changing their timing to minimize delays.
The concept is interesting, but I place little faith in concepts that require massive infrastructure upgrades in order to work. Given that almost no American cities even spend the money to pave their roads properly, I doubt that any big city will spend millions of dollars to upgrade traffic lights.
Automotive technologies -- to be practical -- have to be self-contained. We are much more likely to see lane-management systems that rely on in-car cameras than we are to see lane-management systems that rely on sensors embedded inside the roads.
Of course, things are different in Germany, where Audi is based. I'm not sure they'll spend the money to upgrade their traffic lights, but at least they keep their roads paved beautifully.
"The volume just doesn't justify it," said Jeff Kuhlman, Audi's chief communications officer. Audi only expects to build 8,000 RS6 sedans and wagons throughout its run.
Certifying the RS6 for U.S. sales would likely increase its cost basis above and beyond the already unfavorable exchange rate. The RS6 starts at €105,550 in Germany.
The 572-horsepower super sedan made its official debut at the 08 Moscow Autoshow. The RS6 Quattro features a 5.0-liter, twin-turbo V10 and Audi claims it will accelerate from zero to 62 mph in 4.5 seconds.
"We have been surprised in the last few weeks day-by-day by a dramatic downturn in banking systems. End of December we know exactly where we are," Audi Chief Executive Rupert Stadler said on Wednesday at the Reuters Auto Summit in Paris.
"Nevertheless looking at the environment for Audi, I feel quite confident we can reach and achieve this."
In the first nine months through September, sales rose 2.8 percent to 761,500 vehicles.
Stadler said Audi is making money exporting to the U.S. market at current exchange rates, but since he believes the dollar will stabilize between $1.40-$1.50 in the coming years he reaffirmed the company was committed to manufacturing Audis in the United States, with a final decision expected next year.
For the moment, Stadler said Audi was "well hedged" against all major currencies for the next one to two years.
Stadler dismissed media speculation that Porsche SE's two management board members, Wendelin Wiedeking and Holger Haerter, who sit on the Audi supervisory board are intervening in its product strategy in order to prevent competition for their own luxury sports car business. Audi is also in talks with Porsche to supply it diesel engines for the Cayenne SUV, but thanks to a boardroom defeat dealt by VW unions hostile to Wiedeking the group's largest shareholder needs to seek approval before entering into any business with Audi.
"All things are based on win-win situation. We have good business relations with Porsche for years. If there are opportunities we will try to take them and diesel would be a good example," he said.
Audi plans to launch a purely electric vehicle by 2012 at the latest, when the company wants to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent.
This could possibly be a version of its upcoming subcompact that is due to launch at the beginning of 2009 or the start of the next year and which will be built in Brussels.
"The A1 would not be a bad solution. It would fit very well," he said.
-Source: Reuters
