DETROIT (AP) — Audi is introducing an industry-first system that tells drivers how long it will take for a traffic light to change from red to green. 
 
 The system wirelessly links vehicles to traffic-management computers in certain U.S. cities. Audi is finalizing contracts and says it will announce the cities soon. 
 
 Drivers see the countdown in the instrument cluster. Once four seconds are left before the traffic light turns green, the counter stops so drivers will look up. 
 
 If the system thinks a driver won't make it through a green light, it will also start counting down as if the light were red. 
 
 The system is available on the 2017 Q7 SUV and A4 sedan built after June 1. Drivers must opt for the Connect Prime service, which costs $199 for 6 months. ||||| In an industry first, German carmaker Audi is equipping its latest models with a feature that will allow cars to show when a red light is about to turn green. 
 
 The feature, which allows the cars to receive traffic light information in areas that have centralized control, will roll out city by city. The carmaker expects five to seven cities to be up and running by the end of this year, though Audi won’t say which ones are expected to be first. 
 
 Audi is pitching the technology as a way to make driving more enjoyable. 
 
 “It’s information like this that allows your mind to relax,” Audi general manager Pom Malhotra said in a briefing with reporters in San Francisco. ”That white-knuckle experience goes away.” 
 
 The car will show the time remaining before a light turns green, but only up until a few seconds before it changes, thus hopefully ensuring that the driver looks up to make sure that the light indeed turns as expected. 
 
 Over time, the car could even use the red light information to briefly turn itself off during stops. Or the car could look at the estimated stop time, combined with traffic data, to see if it makes sense to instead turn right and take a different street. 
 
 “These are all enhancements we are looking at with this technology,” Malhotra said. 
 
 More broadly, though, communication between vehicles and traffic infrastructure is seen as critical for the evolution of self-driving cars. 
 
 Audi is also pitching this as a benefit of having technology built directly into the car, rather than coming from Apple or Google via a phone. 
 
 “This is not an app,” Malhotra said. “This is not information that is available on a smartphone that you are using.” 
 
 Audi drivers will have to pay for the service. Traffic light information will be part of Audi’s paid Connect Prime service, which costs between $25 and $33 per month and includes a range of traffic, safety and entertainment services, including music streaming, as well as the cellular data needed to deliver those services.
– If you're the type that likes to gun the engine as soon as the traffic light turns green, you'll love Audi's new models: They include a feature that will alert drivers when a red light is about to change, Recode reports. The Germany company is first offering the feature only in five to seven cities that have centralized traffic light control control; it's expected to roll out by the end of this year. (It will be available in US cities, the AP reports.) The car will count down the time until a light is going to turn green, but will stop counting down a few seconds in advance to ensure drivers actually wait for the light to change before they hit the gas. The feature will be part of Audi's Connect Prime service, which costs $25 to $33 per month and includes other features like music streaming.