Kenny Online.NET

Focused On Urban Issues, Nightlife, & Kenny Smoov

New Era in Safety When Cars Talk to One Another

Story by NYTimes

Researchers In Ann Arbor are working to add time to that equation. They envision a not-too-distant future in which vehicles are in constant, harmonious communication with one another and their surroundings, instantly warning drivers of unseen dangers.

When a motorist brakes quickly, a careless driver runs a red light or a truck bears down unseen in a passing lane, dashboards in nearby cars light up immediately with warnings — providing additional reaction time to avoid a pileup.

The Transportation Department announced this week a plan to require in coming years that the technology, so-called vehicle-to-vehicle communication, be installed in all cars and trucks in the United States. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx called it “the next great advance in saving lives.”

Google may already be experimenting with its own driverless cars, but the technology being tested in this university town by a group of academic, industry and government researchers could be retrofitted into ordinary cars.

The goal was to have a critical mass of networked vehicles in the test so that detailed data could be gathered about how, or if, the interactive systems were working. Drivers come in every few weeks to download data from hard drives stored in the trunk.

The experiment was meant to last a year, but it has been expanded to a three-year program that could soon incorporate about 9,000 local participants, including, for the first time, pedestrians carrying tiny transmitters.

A lesson automakers are learning in Ann Arbor is that if the vehicle-to-vehicle system’s warnings are going to be effective, they had better be right.

“People don’t have a lot of tolerance for things that become a nuisance,” said Jim Keller, the chief engineer overseeing connected vehicles at Honda. “What you don’t want is these things going off all the time when it’s a false alarm. You need it to only work if there’s a problem.”

But if such projects succeed, the benefits could be considerable. The Transportation Department predicts that eight out of every 10 traffic accidents involving unimpaired drivers could be prevented.

A recent report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration put it at about 600,000 fewer crashes involving left turns or intersections, saving more than 1,000 lives annually.

Dan Flores, a General Motors spokesman, said the automaker believed the safety benefits cannot be understated.

“We’re not interested in this because it’s cool,” he said. “We think there’s a fundamental benefit where people can be safer if they have this technology.”

He added: “We believe, longer term, it will be part of the suite of technologies that will bring about a true driverless car.”

Hideki Hada, general manager of integrated vehicle systems at the Toyota Technical Center, said future vehicles would probably combine car-to-car communication with technologies like radar, creating a smart car that is capable of “360-degree awareness.”

“You can keep a car in its lane with cameras and radar, but merging, passing — these things require awareness of other cars on the highway,” Mr. Hada said. “This technology can play a significant role.”

The rapid exchanging of so much data naturally raises concerns about computer security, which until now has not been a concern for most automakers.

“It’s not sending credit card information or anything like that,” Mr. Hada said of vehicle-to-vehicle technology. “But when people hear about a wireless communications system, they care about privacy and security.”

He said some fears can be alleviated just by understanding that unlike cellphones or GPS devices, vehicle-to-vehicle communication transmitters have a range of only a few hundred yards. They are designed to talk to nearby cars and infrastructure, like a two-way radio, but don’t track movements over time or record personal information.

Making sure the new systems are secure has led automakers to welcome new kinds of specialists.

“Traditionally, we sell steel and rubber,” Mr. Hada said. “But we are now able to bring in talented people from computer science, from the world of control systems and algorithms. It’s an exciting environment.”

Many in the auto industry realize car-to-car communication is half the picture. The use of road sensors and other infrastructure will spread more slowly.

“What you want is for the infrastructure to be there and have cars roll off the lot ready to talk to these various signals,” Mr. Keller of Honda said.

But with local governments around the country facing budget pressure, “it’s not going to be that way,” he said. “So it’s going to be interesting to see how things play out.”

Photo via jmpdrivingschool.com

Views: 38

Comment

You need to be a member of Kenny Online.NET to add comments!

Join Kenny Online.NET

Focused on the Urban Lifestyle, Nightlife, and Issues in Nashville for Adults of "All Ages". We keep you connected!



© 2024   Created by Kenny Smoov.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

Your SEO optimized title page contents