Cars That Talk to Each Other May Prevent Accidents, page 1

Like something from "Demolition Man," or "I, Robot," we're finally on the verge of becoming safer on the road with technology. Cars that have the ability to communicate between eachother to provide accurate means of preventing car accidents. Drivers still have control, but have more computerized systems to alert them to potential hazards.

news.yahoo.com
The demonstration at Honda's test center outside Tokyo previews what is shaping up as the next phase of automotive safety: vehicles that talk to each other and the highway system itself.

They tell of their approach to an intersection, warn about hazards ahead or keep an inattentive driver from running a red light, all with the goal of preventing accidents.

GM, for its part, thinks it can develop vehicle-to-vehicle systems faster than its competitors because 4 million of its cars already sport the OnStar communications system, which puts drivers in touch with an operator at the push of a button. GM is demonstrating a car this week that can warn its driver when other cars are in its blind spot. It also can automatically illuminate the brake lamps to warn tailgaters.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Driving will become a bit safter due to these advancements. I honestly hope that there would be a way to turn off any system that would hinder racing and still let the driver have complete control over the vehicle while on the racetrack. With GM's OnStar system, it's not much of a stretch to program that software to be able to communicate with other systems installed in other cars.

My own worry on this setup is that it won't start causing the accident rate to go down until the majority of cars are equipped with these systems. We still have pre-1970 era cars on the road that don't deal with electronics other than a radio, ignition and spark plugs.

They may be able to get the system on the road within 10 years, but I think it'll be a bit longer before there's much of a dent in the accident rates.

[edit on 10-11-2005 by Shaker]

[edit on 13-11-2005 by asala]