US wants cars to be able to talk to each other

Ti28

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A car might see a deadly crash coming even if the driver doesn't, the U.S. government says, so officials are moving to require automakers to equip new vehicles with technology that lets them warn each other when they're plunging toward peril.

The action, still a couple of years off, has "game-changing potential" to cut crashes, deaths and injuries, officials said Monday.

A radio beacon would continually transmit a vehicle's position, heading, speed and other information. Cars would receive the same information back from other vehicles, and a vehicle's computer would alert the driver to an impending collision. Some systems may automatically brake to avoid an accident if manufacturers choose to include that option.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has been working with automakers on the technology for the past decade, estimates vehicle-to-vehicle communications could prevent up to 80 percent of accidents that don't involve drunken drivers or mechanical failure.

The technology holds major potential to prevent crashes in the first place, while the government's focus until now has been on ensuring accidents are survivable, David Friedman, the head of the safety administration, said at a news conference.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the Obama administration decided to announce its intention to require the technology in new vehicles in order to "send a strong signal to the (automotive industry) that we believe the wave of the future is vehicle-to-vehicle technology."

However, it will still be a least several years and perhaps longer before manufacturers would have to put the technology in vehicles, officials said. The safety administration plans to issue a report later this month on the results of its research, and then the public and automakers will have 90 days to comment. After that, regulators will begin drafting a proposal to require automakers to equip new vehicles with the technology. That process could take months to years to complete, but Foxx said it is his intention to issue the proposal before President Barack Obama leaves office.

"It will change driving as we know it over time," said Scott Belcher, president and CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. "Over time, we'll see a reduction in crashes. Automobile makers will rethink how they design and construct cars because they will no longer be constructing cars to survive a crash, but building them to avoid a crash."

Government officials declined to give an estimate for how much the technology would increase the price of a new car, but the transportation society estimate it would cost about $100 to $200 per vehicle.

Automakers are enthusiastic about vehicle-to-vehicle technology, but feel there are important technical, security and privacy questions that need to be worked out first, said Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

Vehicle-to-vehicle "may well play a larger role in future road safety, but many pieces of a large puzzle still need to fit together," she said.

The safety benefits can't be achieved until there is a critical mass of cars and trucks on the road using the technology, and it's not clear what that level of market penetration is. It takes many years to turn over the nation's entire vehicle fleet, but the technology could start preventing accidents long before that. Research indicates safety benefits can be seen with as few at 7 percent to 10 percent of vehicles in a given area similarly equipped, said Paul Feenstra, a spokesman for the transportation society, an umbrella organization for the research and development of new transportation technologies.

Once automakers start adding the technology to all new cars, it would take 15 years or more for half the cars on the nation's roads to be equipped, according to the communications technology company Qualcomm. There are about 5 million to 6 million new cars sold each year.

There may be a way to speed things up. About 45 percent of Americans use smartphones, and that share is growing. The average lifetime of a smartphone is two years. If smartphones, which already have GPS, came equipped with a radio chip they could be used to retrofit vehicles already on the road so that they can talk to each other. The phone would be put in a cradle to sync with the car's computers. That would help make it possible to achieve a 50 percent market penetration in less than five years, according to Qualcomm.

Using cellphones could also extend the safety benefits of connected-car technology to pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists, Belcher said. Drivers would be alerted to a possible collision with a pedestrian carrying a smartphone that continually sends out information to cars in the vicinity, even if it's too dark to see the person or if the pedestrian darts suddenly into traffic. More than 4,700 pedestrians were killed by vehicles and 76,000 injured in 2012.

But there are significant technical and standardization hurdles to using cellphones to support connected car technology. Cellphone batteries typically last only about three hours if used continually. They would need antennas, there are issues with what radio frequencies would be used and their GPS functions may not be as precise as those in a vehicle manufactured with connected car technology, for example.








Yahoo!

Let me drive my own fucking car!
 

Ti28

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If it stops crashes that make our drives to work horrible due to idiots im all for it.

I can see it already, humming down the road having a nice gap between me and the car in front when someone wants in now and closes that gap. Next thing ya know the car's slamming on the breaks!

FUCK THAT!

They are making it easier for retards to drive. Make it harder for retards to get a drivers license.
 

Gone_2022

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Sep 4, 2013
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I can see it already, humming down the road having a nice gap between me and the car in front when someone wants in now and closes that gap. Next thing ya know the cars slamming on the breaks!

FUCK THAT!

I would hope that it would become more refind. However your senario happens now sometimes. New vehicles have crash avoidance systems that apply the brakes for you when "impending doom" is sensed.
 

02BlueGT

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Broadcasts your speed, location and direction. Yes, this will not be used for police enforcement of traffic laws, monitoring, and anything else the govt. want to do with the information. It's not like the speed cameras, and red light cameras can help you if your not by them. This puts them in your car 24/7, to keep you safe :ugh:.

Fuck this. If I ever buy a car with one of these radios, I will remove it at the dealership before even driving home.
 

Lord Tin Foilhat

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Eh. I'm on the fence with this one.

Vehicle to vehicle communication is necessary if you want a true "do nothing but get in" approach to driving. I'd love to just wake up, send a text with a time to pick me up, and a car arrives that takes me to anywhere I want to go with no human driver. A majority of people would not buy cars because a shared one will just show up when you request. A automated shuttle service essentially.

The bad is for us car guys who do want a car and want to tinker with it. I can see roads/lanes dedicated for human drivers and automated cars. More laws. More restrictions and of course the automated system will have to be monitored 24/7 for it to be a viable method of public transportation.
 

Flyn

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images
 

Flyn

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I read a SciFi book years ago where the main character did not "fit in" with modern society. All vehicles were computer controlled to operate at safe speeds and follow safe traffic patterns. This guy disconnected his computer to fly manually which resulted in flashing lights, sirens and police intervention. Ended up with them hauling him in for unsafe driving.

Society is moving in that direction. Real life imitates art.
 

BlizzardTC

its dark and i hear laughing
Aug 22, 2010
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I can see it already, humming down the road having a nice gap between me and the car in front when someone wants in now and closes that gap. Next thing ya know the car's slamming on the breaks!

FUCK THAT!

They are making it easier for retards to drive. Make it harder for retards to get a drivers license.

i think getting a normal driver's license should be bumped up to class a cdl level of testing.
 

rocket5979

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Nov 15, 2005
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FUCK THAT!

They are making it easier for retards to drive. Make it harder for retards to get a drivers license.




The plain truth is that the world is becoming overrun by retards and people who revel in the ignorant. Since intelligence seems to have an inverse relation with fertility rates, I believe the morons are here to stay. Licensing won't change because the program is only as smart as the ones sitting behind the counters managing it; who are partially represented by that majority populace of said morons.

Enter automotive technology, instead. Sadly, things have to be designed and built for the dumbest people using them, not the smartest. Cars are no exception. I like the idea of having networked cars just for the sheer possibility of avoiding backed up traffic due to accidents, etc. Hopefully that locational data network will be used responsibly, but my guess is that it will eventually get abused in order to garner some sort of profit or advantage.
 

Thirdgen89GTA

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I read a SciFi book years ago where the main character did not "fit in" with modern society. All vehicles were computer controlled to operate at safe speeds and follow safe traffic patterns. This guy disconnected his computer to fly manually which resulted in flashing lights, sirens and police intervention. Ended up with them hauling him in for unsafe driving.

Society is moving in that direction. Real life imitates art.

Sounds like something Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, or Heinlein would have written.
 
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