Smart cars are a wave of the current era that intend to make our lives easier while at the same time causing less damage to the environment. The U.S. government is launching a project in Michigan where 3,000 “smart cars” will be able to “talk” to their drivers.
Using a specialized technology this project equips cars with Wi-Fi to see if such communication can make the roads safer.
This smart car research is part of a $25 million per year-long pilot project being conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation. It involves 3,000 cars, buses, and trucks loaded with data recorders and wireless technology that will be driving around Ann Arbor, Mich. The goal is to transmit information to drivers on accidents and dangerous traffic conditions.
Eight automakers are participating in the study, including General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Mercedes-Benz, according to the New York Times. There will also be roughly 2,800 volunteers involved whose driving habits and experiences will be recorded throughout the study.
Here’s more information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on what kind of information the technology will tell drivers:
[Vehicle-to-vehicle] safety technology could help drivers avoid or reduce the severity of four out of five unimpaired vehicle crashes. To accomplish this, the model deployment vehicles will send electronic data messages, receive messages from other equipped vehicles, and translate the data into a warning to the driver during specific hazardous traffic scenarios. Such hazards include an impending collision at a blind intersection, a vehicle changing lanes in another vehicle’s blind spot, or a rear collision with a vehicle stopped ahead, among others.
It will be interesting to see the results of this study, as there are multiple car manufacturers that are interested in this sort of development. It seems at this point that there is a race to see who creates the best innovation while earning the support of whatever government it’s tested under.
