DeviceGuru

In a recent blog post, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood extolled the potential benefits of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technologies in reducing accidents and saving lives on America’s highways.

LaHood noted that, despite the tremendous progress being made in highway and vehicle safety, nearly 34,000 people died and 2.3 million were injured on U.S. roadways in 2009. “The bottom line is that roadway safety isn’t just a transportation issue; it’s a matter of public health,” he wrote. “Our research shows that if drivers were warned about immediate dangers — like an impending collision — many of these deadly crashes could be avoided.”

“It turns out that existing wireless technologies show real promise for dramatically reducing vehicle crashes,” LaHood continued. “V2V communications systems will provide 360-degree situational awareness of other, similarly-equipped V2V vehicles within range.”

V2V technologies in action
(source: U.S. Dept. of Transportation)

In particular, “DOT analysis indicates that up to 76 percent of all crashes by unimpaired drivers could potentially be addressed by this technology,” according to LaHood.

The Secretary noted that under a cooperative agreement with automobile manufacturers, DOT has developed V2V safety system prototypes that transmit alerts and warnings to other vehicles sharing the roadway.

LaHood suggested that the following V2V safety system features could significantly reduce accidents:

• Blind spot warning — warning drivers when they try to change lanes if there is a car in the blind spot
• Forward collision warning — alerting and then warns drivers if they fail to brake when a vehicle ahead of them is stopped or traveling too slowly
• Electronic emergency brake lights — notifying drivers when a hard to see vehicle ahead of them is braking hard
• Intersection movement assist — telling drivers when it is not safe to enter an intersection, for example, when something is blocking a driver’s view of opposing traffic
• Do not pass warning — warning drivers if they attempt to change lanes and pass when there is a vehicle in the opposing lane within the passing zone
• Control loss warning — advising drivers when they are about to lose control of the vehicle

You can find Secretary LaHood’s complete blog post here.