Today’s vehicles showcase many features as standard that you did not see on many cars twenty years ago such as ABS braking systems and airbags. You can also pay for many optional extras such as automatic beams, parking sensors, assisted hill starts, rain sensors and tyre pressure monitoring to name a few. Some of these may still be news to you, but what else is on the horizon?
Good question… Which is why we have researched the latest inventions to give you insight by writing a short series of articles. Here is part one…
Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) Communication
When a car dangerously pulls out in front of you, you have to react fast in order to prevent a collision. With Vehicle to Vehicle communication (V2V) your car will know what other V2V cars are doing, where they are, how fast they are going and more, then primarily alert you of the danger and secondly a computer can take action by applying your brakes or coming off the accelerator for you to stop the accident from occurring.
Vehicle to Infrastructure communication (V2I) is also being developed in conjunction to prevent drivers from colliding into buildings, road signs and more.
This new technology works using 360 degrees of wireless signals that cars will send to each other about their location, speed and direction they are travelling in. The cars then process the information enabling them to calculate and keep safe distances between one and another. MIT engineers are currently working on the algorithms needed to safely prevent these accidents and control cars in the best manner to evade a collision.
An added bonus to this communication is that it can provide very accurate traffic reports and supply a traffic management system that can guide vehicles down the best possible routes.
The downsides are that the average cost of new cars will increase due to the V2V and V2I technology; manufacturers say this could add thousands of pounds. Also the extra weight added to a vehicle from this technology will also be a factor, especially as governments are finalising miles per gallon standards in an urge for the car manufacturing industry to produce lower emission vehicles.
This V2V technology is estimated to reduce road accidents by 79% and if V2I is implemented this figure rises to 81%. Based on these figures only 1 out of every 5 possible accidents will occur making the roads of the future a lot safer.
