Car-to-car communication is considered to be one of the best safety inventions since the seatbelt. By relaying information back and forth amongst each other, vehicles on the road will be able to alert drivers of potential traffic incidents before they could see it coming. This innovation is a game changer for automotive safety, and the DOT is looking to make it mandatory in every car and truck built after 2023.
Does this seem too extreme? Well, there are several manufacturers working on this technology already. Mercedes Benz currently implements car-to-x communication in their E-Class, helping it to “see around corners”, scouting for obstacles and potential problems before you get to them. And General Motors has been rapidly developing these systems over the last few years. Future systems will allow vehicles to send braking, speed, and direction information to other V2V enabled cars, helping to sort out hairy situations immediately. It goes beyond simple radar detection, enabling drivers to adjust their actions and, ultimately, prevent accidents. So why don’t we see more of them on the roads today?
In order for V2V to flourish, their needs to be a network. A structure that supports its own growth, constantly talking to other cars and even the traffic grid to make roads safer. With this proposal by the DOT, that could finally happen. The tech is available and most manufactuers spend a boat-load on new tech every year, so why not? The Department of Transportation has made it their mission, and with good reason. Traffic fatalities rose 4.4 percent in 2015 from the previous year, making now a more urgent time than ever to make V2V standard.
The final verdict should be released within 90 days. If this proposition is passed, then it could drastically change the way manufacturers do safety. We’ve seen the technology snowball since its conception a few years back, and the level of efficiency can be expected to increase tremendously over the next six years. Prepare for a smarter highway system, because it’s on its way — and soon.
Source: US Department of Transportation