To make all that happen, suppliers would have to combine the DSRC capabilities with onboard GPS (global positioning systems). That way, vehicles would know where they are. They'd know the other vehicles around them. They'd know if they should stay in their lanes or slow down. And by talking to other vehicles and to municipalities, they'd know if a street is slippery or if there's construction a few miles ahead.
For now, all of this still depends on alert drivers. Vehicles would give notice to drivers in a variety of ways, including lights on the windshield or atop the dashboard. Eventually, the vehicles might start making decisions themselves, overriding drivers and commandeering the brakes or steering wheel when necessary. However, that is not part of the near-term view of the technology.
Consumer Reports, which tested eight DSRC-equipped vehicles from eight different manufacturers, agreed with the NHTSA that there was real value in the technology.
"It could definitely save lives," Barth told us. "There were scenarios where you'd be testing the vehicle and you'd say, 'Gee, that nearly happened to me the other day.'"
Not everyone agrees with this vision of the future. When we wrote about it in November, many readers were unimpressed. JimZ asked in a comment, "Has anyone considered what will happen if drivers become even less attentive when they believe that V2V is assuming responsibility for driving their vehicle?" And jimwilliams57 said, "I'll continue to use the old fashioned method of avoiding accidents: stay awake; stay alert and stay aware."
Some automakers are also concerned about extra costs, especially given the industry's recent economic troubles. "Understanding what the transceiver might cost, it begins to look like a pretty enormous undertaking," an industry executive told us in 2008. "It always leads back to the question: 'How does this get paid for?' Automakers can't take a $100 hit per car."
But as a possible mandate looms on the horizon in the next few years, Consumer Reports' support may be a sign that V2V is gaining ground.
"NHTSA's figures indicate that about 80 percent of lives that are lost could be saved with this technology," Barth said. "That's really a staggering number."
Good question, Chaschas. In the long run, I believe the plan is to have this technology work with such features as adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance. Ultimately, the plan would be to have the vehicle take over the braking for you.
It's a legitimate concern, ve3eoq. I've avoiding commenting on it -- not because I disagree -- but because I really don't know much about the ways of mitigating it.
Two of the most enthusiastic promoters of this technology are the Consumers Union and the Center for Automotive Research, neither of which are selling any technologies. Both have studied this and have predicted an 80% reduction in fatalities.
Notice that the first things mentioned are the technologies that will be sold to implement this new gimmick. That tells me that those most enthusiasticly promoting it are the ones with a product to sell. Which, if you can get a law passed that all must purchase your product, you will get rich.
The instant problem will be in product liability, meaning that now many fools will presume that part of their driving task is no longer their responsibility, and they will drive, and sue, accordingly. I would not want to be the legally responsible producer of such equipment. There will certainly be a lot of lawsuits when fools start buying these systems. A system that provides the driver with sensed information about other vehicles would be a much better idea. This could include radar to track path and rate of closure, thus providing a warning to take corrective, or evasive, action.
But the very worst problem will come from the same direction as those nasty computer viruses come from: false information, such as reporting that the car ahead is going slower than it really is, or that it is stopping. And certainly the communications will include a vehicle identity, and probably driver identity, code, so that it will be a trivial matter to send out traffic citations for any percieved violation, rather real or not. And in that area, consider the really easy possibility of "vehicle identity theft", where one would be given citations earned by others.
The reality is that V2V communications would be a theoretical benefit primarily to those who should not be driving at all because they don't pay attention tom their surroundings. It would indeed be a large step toward the implementation of "utopia", where Big Brother is constantly monitoring our every action, so as to make sure that we never do anything "out of line", or anything different from all others.
Probably the one idea that is worse than this would be an in-vehicle booze dispenser. I have seen one of those and I do NOT recommend them.
I think V2V is very likley going to happen, HowieD231, and I think that the automatic summons is also likely to follow, just as you predict. If there's money in it, local municipalities will figure out a way to get their hands on it.
It will be very pointless to use V2V comm technology if its simple anotherway to cut down on human error. Human drivers will always be faulty whether you are naturally a good planner or you are not.
V2V communication research has been going on for over a decade and the technology can easly intergrate with currect navigation systems but that does not stop accidents happening and it will be a poor model to use the technology on.
Now that driverless cars are nearly into production , then so is the V2V Comm technology and its part of the driverless system design. The technology does the planning and where posible the reaction but the later will rarely happen unless there is a systems design error.
The only planning you will do then is to tell the Car your destination , either by voice or touch screen device like your ipad...i guess more intelligent pads by then.
Auto Vehicle-to-Vehicle Comms Viewed as Life Saver is an important step once implemented. This is indeed is a best example to showcase how technology can be used to enhance human life
People are for the most part, planners or reacters by nature. When panners must react, they usually already have a plan for the reaction.
Reacters are accident prone. Always a second late and a thought short.
Planners are two or three steps ahead as far as what the other drivers on the road are might do. They think about where they are going, how they plan to get there amd of course how they plan to flow with the traffic around them to get there.
Info alone cannot save lives - it's how the driver uses it. Is the driver using it to plan or is the driver merely reacting to it?
The question is: Will this technology make you more of a planner or more of a reacter as you drive?
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