GM Wants Cars to Talk – To Each Other
Safety rises when cars communicate, GM says

Link to Original Article @ TCC | by Richard Yarrow | (2007-07-11)

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication - where cars silently talk to each other about traffic conditions further down the road - is on the way. That's the view of bosses at General Motors, who have revealed the latest details of their futuristic V2V system.

Here's how it works: if there's a broken down car round a blind bend, your vehicle will know about it before you get there because one coming the other way - having already passed the blockage - will have spread the word. You get a dashboard warning and don't plow into the back of the stationary machine.

But it can also warn of a police car responding to an emergency in the vicinity. By displaying where it is in relation to you, it allows you to get out of the way quicker. Another example of V2V is what GM calls Intersection Collision Warning, where a vehicle approaching a blind junction would know if others were converging on the same spot, hopefully preventing an accident.

V2V works using sat-nav, a microprocessor and the type of wireless Local Area Network (LAN) technology that's standard in most new home computers. The information is transferred in milliseconds and each car has a communication range of up to 500m. It means even if there was nothing coming the other way, you'd know of the stranded vehicle in plenty of time. As well as improved road safety, reduced journey times - by re-routing you around hold-ups - are the key benefit.

The display indicates that there is a vehicle ahead on the road (depicted with the red icon) and has stopped (depicted with the yellow triangle)

Most major car makers are working on V2V and to a set of basic parameters and protocols so future cars will all be speaking the same language. But Bruno Praunsmändel, GM Europe's group manager for advanced engineering, admitted V2V will only work efficiently when the vast majority of vehicles have it. "With safety-critical technology like this you need more than 90 percent of vehicles involved to see some impact on the accident statistics," he said.

He added that if all carmakers started now it would be 10 years before that occurred, and they're not ready to go just yet. A four-year trial will begin in Germany in the autumn, with all the local manufacturers involved and the support of the Government. It will involve several hundred cars, and will also test how best to deliver the information to the driver.

the possibilites with this are quite cool, but we talked about it before, another nanny device is what seemed to be the verdict.

easing congestion is prolly the #1 best thing this could do, ya knowtell other cars where you want to go and so the people around you could be nice, and move the traffic slowly instead of stop and go.

I can't think of a feature I would possibly use less.

I could do without, what could easily turn into, another computer-related dependancy in my cars.

Edited July 11, 200717 yr by AxelTheRed

I can see a great use for it with the number of people in grey/black cars who refuse to turn their lights on in the rain or twighlight. Just because they can see other people doesn't mean anyone can see them . Hello, you're in a car the same color as the road, obscured by rain in the air, on the windows and on the wing mirrors. How do you think anyone can see you without lights? V2V communication cannot come soon enough. I'll still think you're a b—y a—e, but at least I won't pull out in front of you.

Edited July 11, 200717 yr by thegriffon

It would be nice if this thing could flash the middle finger on the offenders screen so the victim driver can keep both hands on the wheel.

This feels like another building block for auto-pilot.

feels like a building block for big brother

The two could go hand-in-hand. Customers that prefer one probably also want the other...

This feels like another building block for auto-pilot.

It would help, but auto-pilot would need a backup system to this as well unless 100% of things on the road had V2V (including pedestrians, debris on freeways etc.)

It would help, but auto-pilot would need a backup system to this as well unless 100% of things on the road had V2V (including pedestrians, debris on freeways etc.)

Yeah, we should totally implant V2V in roadkill. :wink:

I think the V2V is a cool idea, but aside from what has already been pointed out, I have one obvious and glaring concern: hackers. A hacked V2V vehicle can use the V2V network to spread misinformation. At the very least, this would make V2V useless. At the very worst, this could set the stage for city-wide terrorism.

Noyt for me.

Technically, it could be useful, but this is just a nanny device for sure.

Plus, it could be used to track people (not just a stolen car).

No thanks.

I'll take my privacy.

Aren't blind curves part of the fun of driving? Having a V2V system kind of kills the suspense and the whole anticipation aspect of driving.

Man, I sure hope there is nothing around the bend here.......