Cars tell drivers what colour traffic light will be in new trial

Manufacturer claims measure could improve road safety

New trial explores how traffic lights and cars can interact (SEAT )

A car manufacturer has trialled technology that allowed vehicles to communicate with traffic lights.

The new Seat Leon was connected to Barcelona’s traffic light infrastructure as a test to look at ways of improving road safety, traffic flow and environmental efficiency.

When the vehicle approached a traffic light, an alert appeared on the screen saying whether it would be red, green or yellow when the car arrived.

A computer had calculated how far away the car was from the lights and the speed it was travelling at after real-time traffic data was sent into a “cloud” which shares data with the vehicle’s system.

The process is known as V2I, or “Vehicle to Infrastructure”, where connected cars can interact with infrastructure via an internet connection or wireless local area network.

Jordi Caus, of Seat, said: “With this project we’re taking a first step to connect cars with overall traffic infrastructure.

“It improves safety by providing advanced information about traffic lights turning red depending on your speed and therefore avoids abrupt braking."

The feature only worked when the car was not exceeding the speed limit and may enable motorists to drive more smoothly, Seat said.

Seat - which collaborated with the Spanish Traffic Authority, the Barcelona City Council and ETRA on the project - has just officially unveiled the new Leon which is filled with "connected" technology, including an infotainment screen using gesture recognition and an eCall service which directly calls emergency services in the case of a car accident.

The Highways Agency has previously said that "co-operative intelligent transport systems" will play an important role in the future of Britain's road infrastructure.

SWNS