Audi is preparing to introduce its traffic signal information vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) service to European markets.

The service will be initially available in Ingolstadt city in Germany, with further rollout in the other European cities from 2020 onwards.

The new technology provides information to Audi drivers in their cars’ cockpit about the speed required to reach the next traffic light on green.

If the driver is unable to make due to the permitted speed limit in the region, then the service will provide a countdown to the next green phase.

Audi development of apps, connected services and smart city head Andre Hainzlmaier said: “Stop-and-go traffic in cities is annoying. By contrast, we are pleased when we have a ‘green wave’, but we catch them far too seldom, unfortunately.

“With the traffic light information function, drivers are more in control. They drive more efficiently and are more relaxed because they know 250m ahead of a traffic light whether they will catch it on the green.

“In the future, anonymised data from our cars can help to switch traffic lights in cities to better phases and to optimise the traffic flow.”

For this project, Audi is working with Traffic Technology Services (TTS), which prepares raw data from city traffic management centres

This data is then transmitted to the Audi servers and the information is again re-transmitted to the car through a fast internet connection.

“They drive more efficiently and are more relaxed because they know 250m ahead of a traffic light whether they will catch it on the green.”

In the US, Audi’s ‘time-to-green’ service is available at more than 5,000 intersections across various cities including Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Portland and Washington DC.

Around 1,000 intersections in Washington DC alone are linked to the traffic light information function.

The company has been offering the advance function called ‘green light optimised speed advisory’ (GLOSA) in North America since February.

The German carmaker is planning to introduce time-to-green and GLOSA services in Ingolstadt in selected Audi models, including all e-tron types and the A4, A6, A7, A8, Q3, Q7 and Q8.