Some 2017 Audi cars will be able to tell their drivers how long they're going to wait at a red light. The new feature is designed to help traffic flow, ideally, but it also sounds great to pointing your fingers at the light and saying "now!" over and over.

Before you get too excited, you should know that this comes with a few strings attached. First of all, the feature will only be available through a premium suite of digital add-ons that Audi offers for a pretty hefty fee: $200 for 6 months or $750 for 30 months. Also, the service will also only be offered in "select cities and metropolitan areas across the U.S.," according to an Audi press release. It's as much a bummer as it is a very obvious limitation.

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The limited release has less to do with Audi's tech and more with access to the necessary data. The car will communicate with a city's infrastructure and will receive "real-time signal information from the advanced traffic management system that monitors traffic lights." So you'll only be able to get the timer while driving in cities that have that tech and also make the data available to Audi.

Seattle, for example, recently entered a deal with Siemens to improve traffic light systems. With the new technology, The Seattle Times reported at the time, the city "will be able to import external data" and is planning down the line on switching to "adaptive-signal timing" with will be able to adjust green and red light times according to traffic situations on the ground. Presumably, car companies like Audi could buy their way into this data, though hopefully never so far as to actually buy preferential treatment for certain cars over others.

Someday, when the self-driving car future is finally realized, we might be able to do away with red lights all together and just let communicating cars race through intersections at close to full speed. For now, having a countdown to green would be pretty great too, at least to dream about.

Source: Audi via The Verge

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