Audi 2015 Annual Report Download - page 55

The second Urban Future Partnership in
Somerville also aims to develop habitats
where people enjoy living and working.
Here, Audi is cooperating not with a
private partner but with the city itself.
Audi and representatives of Somerville
are working on a mobility concept for
the popular neighborhood around Union
Square. Cars there are to be supplied with
information about tra c light phases to
improve tra c fl ow.
The Audi connect service tra c light
information makes this possible.
A display in the cockpit shows Audi
driv ers the ideal speed that will allow
them to drive through the lights during
green phases.
“Our vision is for tra c lights to be net-
worked with cars, buses and the mobile
devices of cyclists and pedestrians,” ex-
plains Michael Zweck of the Volkswagen
Group’s Electronics Research Laboratory,
a research and pre-development center
in Silicon Valley. “Then tra c can be
regulated so that everyone saves time.”
Zweck advises city representatives on
things such as the future technical require-
ments Somerville’s tra c lights will
need to meet.
“We can learn so much from each
other,” says Somerville’s Mayor Joseph
A. Curtatone. “When a company and
a city work together to add value for the
community, it’s fascinating.” Then the
car becomes a vehicle for freedom – as it
always has been, yet with more poten-
tial than ever before.
“IN SOMERVILLE YOU
CAN ALREADY SEE
WHAT THE TRENDS OF
TOMORROW WILL BE.”
Joseph A. Curtatone
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