HERNDON, VA – Audi of America partnered with SENSEable City Lab to develop what the automaker is calling the “Road Frustration Index,” which provides snapshots of America’s roads and road conditions. The website is viewable at www.roadintel.com.

The website uses a mix of historical and real-time data to provide a snapshot of what driving conditions are like, and the effects on fuel economy, time wasted, number of traffic incidents, and even an overall “frustration” level of drivers on the road. Weather data comes from Weather.com and NAVTEQ provides traffic incident data and information on overall traffic conditions. Twitter, which is often used by local news, provides a “sentiment” value to illustrate the general "feeling" of drivers.

Users can view data by the hour for a given location or view data for specific days that have passed.

The site is part of Audi’s new marketing campaign for its A6, but the tool is an interesting look at how a range of data types and provide a quick overview of just how much time, fuel, and productivity is lost to traffic and poor road conditions.