Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Car Talk: Could vehicles communicate to prevent crashes?

“Honk! Beep!”

Drivers are familiar with the sound of a vehicle’s horn blaring to get another driver’s attention. But what if the vehicles themselves were part of that communication process? And what if they could actually communicate with each other to keep us safe?
A recent proposal by the U.S. Department of Transportation could do exactly that. Late last year, Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx announced that the department would advance efforts to make vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication a reality.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s press release, Foxx said that the U.S. DOT is carrying the ball as far as they need to ensure that lives are saved and this transportation technology could make a huge difference.

“This long promised V2V rule is the next step in that progression,” Foxx said. “Once deployed, V2V will provide 360-degree situational awareness on the road will help us enhance vehicle safety.”

The new proposed rule would mean that all newer light vehicles would be need to be manufactured with V2V technologies and automakers would be required to ensure that the vehicles would be able to communicate universally through standardized messaging.

 “V2V devices would use the dedicated short range communications (DSRC) to transmit data, such as location, direction and speed, to nearby vehicles.” The press release said. “That data would be updated and broadcast up to 10 times per second to nearby vehicles, and using that information, V2V-equipped vehicles can identify risks and provide warnings to drivers to avoid imminent crashes.

Of the many uses, this technology could provide the driver with much needed information about how safe it is to pass on a two-lane highway and if there is any on-coming traffic that is hard to see. Other situations where it could help are if it would be safe to make a left-handed turn or if another vehicle is close enough to cause a collision.

While this technology could be introduced to newer cars in the near future, there are a few steps that need happen before we will be seeing cars with this feature.

What do you think? Would you be willing to drive a vehicle that can communicate with other cars around it? Let us know in the comments. 

1 comment:

  1. If my car could tell the other car that it is exceeding the speed limit and what it SHOULD be going - and hopefully have the other car say "oh, I'm sorry - I'll slow down right now - thank you", then I would be a happy driver and not worry about getting where I'm going.