EuroWire May 2018

Transatlantic cable

instrument panel will count down the seconds until the light turns green. (“Traffic Lights in Washington, DC, Can Now Talk to Cars, ” 14 th March.) In the US capital there are currently over 600 such crossroads. But in the future, when more cars are equipped with V2I, communication back to the city’s central traffic control system will identify traffic flow and bottlenecks. The data would inform decisions to reroute cars, adjust traffic light times, and – down the road – plot improvements with city planners. Mr Hsu reported that Washington is the sixth American city to make V2I “time-to-green” available. Audi introduced it in the USA in 2016. Now there are over 1,600 participating intersections nationwide. Dorothy Fabian USA Editor

with news of required modifications to diesel-engine software. Green Car Reports observed that, if they are to be won over, some decidedly anti-diesel sentiment must be met and mastered. In the same week that Mr Müller made his prediction, Toyota announced it would no longer sell any diesel vehicles in Europe but instead would promote the low-emitting hybrid cars it pioneered 20 years ago. To reduce emissions and improve air quality, several European cities had already announced their intention to ban older vehicles with the highest-emitting diesel engines. (“Mixed Messages on Future of Diesel at Geneva Auto Show,” 7 th March) † † VW’s claim of ecology-mindedness is defensible. Volkswagen, Audi and several other VW Group diesels are now largely fitted with selective catalytic reduction treatment systems that

inject urea solution into the exhaust to convert nitrogen oxides into emissions of nitrogen and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). This certainly makes them “greener” than the vast majority of diesels now on European roads. But, as a Reuters report from the Geneva show made plain, the advantage may be more apparent than real. The challenge for European and all other automakers is to stay within the CO 2 emissions limits that will get progressively more challenging over the next decade and beyond. Here, Volkswagen can assert another slight edge on the competition. As pointed out by Mr Voelcker of Green Car Reports , because diesels have historically been more efficient in energy use than gasoline engines of similar output, they emit somewhat less carbon dioxide per mile driven. † † Characterising the European Union’s “rules of the game” in relation to climate protection and CO 2 emissions as so challenging that governments cannot do without diesel, VW Group’s Mr Müller declared: “If there’s less diesel, then getting to [their] goal just gets tougher.” Elsewhere in automotive . . . † † The Volkswagen Group has also been proactive on another front. On 14 th March, its Bavaria-based luxury vehicle unit Audi announced that Washington DC had linked its traffic system to cars equipped with vehicle-to-in- frastructure, or V2I, communication. The technology enables vehicles to share information with such highway- system components as traffic lights, streetlights, lane markers, parking meters, cameras and signage. Audi is the first automaker to include V2I technology, a critical step toward self-driving cars, on some of its vehicles. Right now, according to Ben Hsu of The Car Connection , an auto review site, “the benefits are not huge.” If a V2I-equipped car is waiting at an intersection adapted for V2I technology, a display on the

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May 2018