The US Department of Transportation (DOT) launched the first big test of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technologies last week, equipping nearly 3,000 cars, trucks, and buses in Michigan with modules that might one day prevent up to 80 percent of the crashes on American roadways.
The pilot program will enable vehicles to "talk" to one another, as well as to traffic lights and stop signs, as a means of heading off crashes, detecting blind spots, preventing dangerous lane changes, and improving traffic flow. "This cutting-edge technology offers real promise for improving both the safety and efficiency of our roads," said US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, in a statement at the pilot launch in Ann Arbor, Mich., last week.
Cohda Wireless supplies its CohdaMobility Mk2 module for onboard communications in the pilot vehicles. The MK2 employs an IEEE 802.11 radio, GPS chip, and applications processor. (Source: Cohda Wireless)
The one-year test will show whether V2V and V2I will indeed be capable of reducing crashes as predicted. Many automotive experts, including those at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), have said the new communication technologies will save more lives than seat belts, airbags, and stability control systems, combined. Experts are divided, however, on whether the technology will require so-called "critical mass" -- in other words, whether all cars will need to be equipped with it in order to provide benefits for anyone.
"As soon as we get a wealth of users, we'll be able to find out what the technology can do and what its limitations are," Dave McNamara, an automotive consultant and president of McNamara Technology Solutions, told us.
Automotive suppliers are already lining up to provide wireless transceivers and GPS systems if V2V and V2I take off. On its Website, DOT cited four companies as part of its pilot program. Cohda Wireless will work with tier-one suppliers Delphi Automotive and Visteon, while Denso International of America will also supply technology.
V2V and V2I works by employing a dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) system operating at 5.9 GHz. The DSRC system consists mostly of transceiver boards for vehicles, traffic lights, stop signs, and roadway modules. Notebook-sized infrastructure boxes for outdoor environments might be slightly larger than those onboard the vehicles, mainly because the electronics would need to be contained in waterproof enclosures. But all printed circuit boards would be small, possibly measuring just 3 inch x 2 inch x 1 inch.
Noticed on the first photo the DB9 marked RS232. I suspect this box must be plugged into a control board somewhere, possibly to the unit in the trunk of the second vehicle. RS232? In a high noise environment? Maybe RS422 to communicate to the control unit, or maybe a modified differential CAN bus. I hope it is more reliable than my Y2K stick shift Mustang GT convertible electronics! I also found that the "standard OBD II" is anything but standard. Every manufactuer uses their own "standard", except for the connector. Whoopee! SAE or IEEE would do a much better than than Congress. Thankfully Congress never "standardized" bolts. Imagine what that alternate universe would be like!
Thinking even further down the line, a unit like this has all the parts needed to make the vehicle "autodrive", except for machine vision that would be needed to avoid those pesky pedestrians, non V2V units, dogs, deer, bicycles, errant children, and other road hazards.
Then thinking even further, cars would no longer run red lights, stop signs, or speed. What will we do with all the traffic cops who no longer have a function? Maybe they could give out tickets for badly dressed engineers, those amongst us whose socks don't match!
Then again maybe I should just shut up and see why my "check engine soon", "ABS fault", and "traction control" lamps are all on. My bet is they are all connector related. I should do this before the fish tailing in second gear acceleration gets me killed!
The cost of these vehicle-to-vehicle systems is really not that much compared with the potential savings in lives and damaged cars. I'd love to see this technology become standard in all new cars and trucks.
Hi Chuck, Quite an interesting article on vehicle crash prevention using V2V Technology. I understand Ford has embraced WiFi in their Fiesta automobile for V2V communications. I'm curious to know the radius in which these vehicles can communicate within. Will the vehicle communication nodes be limited to driving distance(miles) in which the V2V automobiles need for proper data transmission to occur? I know wireless meshed networks operating from 802.15.4 standard can have signficant range and if a node is offline the other nodes will step in to keep the network up and running.
Chuck, you mention a price of $100 to $200 per car. That sounds reasonable for the electronic technology mentioned. Your point about it being used mainly in high end luxury cars is a little off base, I think. For example, air bags cost more, and many are on all vehicles. In addition, a back-up camera, whcih is not really useful in the situations mentioned in your article, cost $250 for the consumer (and probably $20 for the manufacturer) and they are popular even on compact cars. So, if you are right about the cost, it should be a requirement.
I have also been following the IEEE standards for V2V and V2I. Since they build on existing standards I think you will find that they can be implemented cost effectively using existing devices programmed to operate in the environment.
Finally, it is good to see this technology finally being applied. I think they will find that even if not everyone has it, it will help. If everyone had it there would be vastly fewer accidents.
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