I really hope this amazing “talking car” technology is wide-spread by the time my grand-kids are old enough to drive. This could save many lives.
Details are in an article in the Columbus Dispatch. Here are the opening paragraphs:
Your car might see a deadly crash coming even if you don’t, the government says, indicating it will require automakers to equip new vehicles with technology that lets cars warn one another if they’re plunging toward peril.
The action, still some years off, has “game-changing potential” to cut collisions, deaths and injuries, federal transportation officials said at a news conference yesterday.
A radio signal would continually transmit a vehicle’s position, heading, speed and other information. Cars and light trucks would receive the same information from other cars, and a vehicle’s computer would alert its driver to an impending collision. Alerts could be a flashing message, an audible warning or a driver’s seat that rumbles. Some systems might even automatically brake to avoid an accident if manufacturers choose to include that option.
Your car would “see” when another car or truck equipped with the same technology was about to run a red light, even if that vehicle was hidden around a corner. Your car also would know when a car several vehicles ahead in traffic had made a sudden stop and alert you. The technology works up to about 300 yards.
If communities buy in, roads and traffic lights could start talking to cars, too, sending warnings of traffic congestion or road hazards ahead in time for drivers to take a detour.
