Cars Avoid Crashes By Talking To Each Other

Fri, 06/08/2012

Joan Lowy, Associated Press 

 

In this photo taken, Tuesday, May 22, 2012, professional test driver Dave McMillan, from Los Angeles, demonstrates the dashboard warning signal in a Buick Lacrosse at an automobile test area in Oxon Hill. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The future of automotive safety is coming this summer to the U.S.: Cars that to talk to each other and warn drivers of impending collisions.
The U.S. government is launching a yearlong, real-world test involving nearly 3,000 cars, trucks and buses using volunteer drivers in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The vehicles will be equipped to continuously communicate over wireless networks, exchanging information on location, direction and speed 10 times a second with other similarly equipped cars within about 1,000 feet (300 meters). A computer analyzes the information and issues danger warnings to drivers, often before they can see the other vehicle.
Called vehicle-to-vehicle communication, or V2V, more advanced versions of the systems can take control of a car to prevent an accident by applying brakes when the driver reacts too slowly to a warning.
V2V "is our next evolutionary step ... to make sure the crash never happens in the first place, which is, frankly, the best safety scenario we can all hope for," said David Strickland, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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