Ford has started to trial technology which will allow its vehicles to avoid red lights by instructing a driver of the optimum speed to travel at to catch every green light.
Dubbed Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory, the system collects information on traffic light timings from a roadside unit and has been developed to demonstrate the benefits of connected cars.
According to supervisor for Driver Assist Technologies, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, Christian Ress, ““There’s not much worse after a long day than to hit one red light after another on the drive home, and be forced to stop and start again at every junction.
“Enabling drivers to ‘ride the green wave’ also means a smoother, continuous journey that helps to improve the flow of traffic and provide significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption.”
Remarkably, Ford says that people who drive daily in the United Kingdom spend two days every year waiting at red lights. Such a system would resign that surprising figure to the history books.
At this stage, the automaker hasn’t announced if it intends on introducing the technology to its production cars and, if so, when.
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