Experts say that the intelligent highway will save more lives than seat belts, airbags, and electronic stability control. For sheer lifesaving capacity, nothing in the history of the auto industry will come close to it.
The reason for the superlatives around the technology is simple: Vehicle infrastructure integration (VII), as it's known, will allow cars to talk to one another, as well as to traffic lights and stop signs. It will enable them to communicate with municipalities, government agencies, car dealerships, and traffic control centers.
As a result, cars won't collide. They'll "know" when to slow down, when to turn, and when it's safe to enter an intersection. They'll prevent drivers from making dangerous lane changes and enable them to head-off multi-car crashes.
Click on the image below to see 13 examples of these potentially lifesaving technologies.
Using GPS and DSRC, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication could take place between cars as far as a quarter-mile apart. (Source: General Motors)
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If you've always dreamed of hanging with the pit crew at Indy, your opportunity has arrived. Littelfuse Inc., a KV Racing sponsor, is sponsoring the Speed2Design contest. Winners will attend the race, visit the pits, and talk engineer-to-engineer with crew members.
The Speed2Design promotion is connected to five Indy Racing League series races in Indianapolis (May 27); Fort Worth, Texas (June 9); Qingdao, China (Aug. 19); Sonoma, Calif. (Aug. 26); and Fontana, Calif. (September 15). Littelfuse will randomly select five participants to attend each Speed2Design event.
Click on the link to access the entry form for the
Speed2Design contest.
All vehicles must be "smart" for this to work right. I'm sure any experience NY taxi driver could "intimidate" a smart cat to a standstill in 15 seconds, gain road advantage, laugh their way though town.
Up here in the UP, we must drive in weather conditions that smart cars might "chicken out" in or we wouldn't get anything none.
Don't get me wrong, this is good stuff, all cars just need to be on the same page.
For example, I'm not a chess palyer, but I beat the computer at chess easily because I purposely use non-book moves and openings and confuse the heck out of it.
Apps currently exist for V2V (like WAZE) that use simple crowdsourcing so that people can report accidents, traffic jams, speed traps, police and can update roads, landmarks, house numbers.
I guess I have a hard time understanding why we should spend a lot of money, time and energy trying to fix the cars, which aren't really a problem, instead of trying to fix the drivers, which are a problem.
ChasChas, you are correct on both counts. This technology will really start to show its effects when all vehicles have it. And, yes, there could be a problem with cars "chickening out" when the weather is bad. I could also see traffic jams occurring because the vehicles will be too conservative.
Al, I agree that distracting user interfaces could be a problem if this isn't done correctly. I can't really speak to some of the solutions, but I know that automotive suppliers are working on this issue.
@ChasChas- Did you hear that England is going to switch to driving on the right-hand side of the road? They're using a conservative approach. The first phase will be trucks....
Your exactly right, ervin. History has shown people so easily trading their freedoms for security, safety, and health care.
In this country, we expected the individual to provide their own security, safety and health care in exchange for the freedom to be able to do just that. (Plus put up with some inequites in the system.)
Now we have one political party catering to human strengths and one political party catering to human weaknesses - what a mess!
Many Rational comments about benefits of good drivers, outweighing extra-sensory-perception of the automobile; however, in one instance, I'm very excited for the day when my car will talk to the Stop Lights.This will be a huge turn in the RIGHT direction from where I'm currently standing.
I live in South Florida where many municipalities have joined together and created a monster – The "Smart" traffic light.It is blatantly misnamed, and is the most frustrating robot ever created --- liken to the 1980's when computers were first becoming commonplace, and you remember the common colloquialism, "computers don't make mistakes" --- (remember that battle-cry-?)
These Miami-Dade-Broward-West-Palm Beach Traffic lights are proudly displayed by the governing bodies and over-zealously snap pictures of your license-plate, happily running up city revenues.Trouble is, they burn steady-red for minutes on end, presumably thinking they have the superior intelligence on traffic patterns – which they do not.Daily I approach the same Green-Arrow, only to be struck with a 4-minute Red, because my vehicle was only "approaching" the sensors at 30mph, and not stopped on top of it.
Yes, I am excited to see the day when I my car can "talk" to these lights. Oh, I'll have a thing or two to say, for sure.
I can confidently say that much of the Push behind all of the ideas shown here are intended to "help" the distracted driver to be safer.....And then slide #5 of 13 states that Automakers are contemplating putting V2V apps on Smart Phones.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
Using almost 200 light-emitting diodes in the front and back of the new 2014 CTS, Cadillac designers are showing how LEDs can change the character of a vehicle.
We recently posted an online slideshow called, “18 People You Didn’t Know Were Engineers.” Within hours of its publication, readers began to suggest names of other luminaries -- astronauts, politicians, athletes and actors -- who were educated or had worked as engineers.
In yet another sign that hydrogen is creeping into the consciousness of global automotive designers, sports car maker Aston Martin plans to run a hydrogen-fueled vehicle in a 24-hour Grand Touring race later this month.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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