Smart Cars Get a Connection Test in Michigan

by BILL VLASIC   New York Times

U.S. regulators announced a 12-month, $25 million smart car initiative in Michigan to see whether highway safety can be improved via wireless communication between vehicles. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says 3,000 vehicles in Ann Arbor will be outfitted with data recorders and technology similar to Wi-Fi for sending information about accidents or dangerous traffic conditions to drivers in the connected autos.

“Cars talking to each other is the future of motor safety,” LaHood says. Several of the newest models unveiled by car manufacturers feature various active safety devices that notify drivers if they are in a hazardous situation, but the smart car program intends to share safety data among a linked population of autos on the road.

The system can give visual or audio alerts to motorists concerning abrupt traffic shifts experienced by another connected vehicle, while data about drivers’ accident and traffic change responses will be captured by onboard cameras.

Federal safety regulators say the severity in approximately 80 percent of vehicle collisions involving unimpaired drivers could be mitigated or avoided through vehicle-to-vehicle communication. “The technology is there, and now we need to deploy it intelligently,” says Center for Automotive Research founder David Cole.  Article

DCL: About time! They’ve been talking about smart cars for years.