Posted on 05/17/2009 9:44:02 AM PDT by Schnucki
Cohda intelligent transport system allows cars to communicate mph or kph and location and BMW/Car 2 Care are researching
A device that could dramatically reduce the number of collisions by eliminating driver error is to be tested in Europe. The system uses technology similar to wi-fi to enable vehicles to communicate with each other, sharing information about their speed and location, to determine when a crash is imminent. It can then warn the driver or take over the controls.
Cohda Wireless, an Australian technology start-up, will announce this month that it has signed a multi-million-pound contract with a partnership of several European governments to begin the first big trial of its vehicle communication system. It claims its technology could cut road fatalities by half.
Known as the Cohda intelligent transport system, the technology uses a GPS locator and a chip that allows cars to communicate their speed and location, 10 times per second over a radio frequency, to other similarly equipped vehicles within a 500ft radius. The device will alert drivers if, for example, a car jumps a red light, or advise them when it is unsafe to overtake. If it detects the potential for a collision, the system can give an audible warning or take over the reins if the driver’s reactions prove too slow.
“The first trial systems will only give a warning,” says Paul Alexander, chief technical officer for Cohda. “But the ultimate vision is to pretty much remove driver error by allowing the car to react for you.”
This will initially take the form of tightening seatbelt tensions and intensifying braking pressure prior to a crash. In the future it will include controlling the steering, applying the brakes autonomously and even lowering a “curtain or shield” over the windscreen, preventing the panicking driver from seeing what
(Excerpt) Read more at technology.timesonline.co.uk ...
see tagline.
This would be the end of BMW sales...
Maybe not stop, but it can help, just as technology does elsewhere. Still no substitute for human brain and judgement.
I’d rather see tax dollars funding R&D that could turn out spinoffs that would drive innovation and create jobs than pissing them down the ARRA rathole where there will be no measurable effect, other than in our wallets for decades to com.
Maybe a better approach would be to restrict or eliminate drivers with a propensity to commit errors.
Considering how some morons drive, while texting or talking on the phone, this might be a real boon to safety. But it all seems part of taking control from the idiots and thereby dumbing down society and personal responsibilty even further.
I rode in one of those ‘automatic-braking’ Volvos last Tuesday night and it was kind of neat. However, had the driver not tailgated, there would have been no need for this safety feature.
On the flip side, I can see some geek A-hole try to spoof the system and cause mass crashes and/or traffic jams. Just because they can.
I long for the days when the machines were the dumb ones.
What if.....
Your car can't communicate with any others because none are close enough or you are in a geographical location where the signal will not get to another vehicle?
What if you are driving a vehicle without 'onboard systems'? Do you and your vehicle 'exist' to the 'smart' vehicles? Or will manual operators be banned?
Isn't this just another way to track people, their actions, movements, their activities?
Is this going to be used as a vehicle to tax operators for 'driving unenvironmentally', for exceeding government allotted distances? for every foot of motion?
Watch as Obamite Motors start installing similar stuff in the government aprooved vehicles in the future (they already have 'black boxes', voice/vehicle communications/surveillance, and GPS.)
And the big bad wolf said, "The better to track you with, my dear."
Let a couple clouds get in the way or you’re in the middle of some cement barriers or buildings and just watch a GPS go all wacky. One overcast day I was driving at about 45 mph but my gps said I was going around 2,500 mph. Thanks, but no thanks.
“...and even lowering a “curtain or shield” over the windscreen, preventing the panicking driver from seeing what is happening and making rash decisions”
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WTH?
Yeah sure, I want that in my car...NOT!
At first glance I thought it read “Technology Could Stop Spending and Crashes”...I thought they were implanting a taser-like chip inside the brains of socialists. /to another thread.
An insurance company that would offer a policy to any car manufacturer who rolls out the “take-over-the-controls” component of this technology would be an excellent stock to immediatly eliminate from one’s portfolio.
I grew up in an era of steel dashboards (no padding), manual choke, three-on-the-tree, no seat belts, no airbags, no power steering, no power assist brakes, no ABS, no automatic traction control, no crumple zones, etc.
In short, the vehicles were 'primitive' by modern standards.
If you got into a head-on collision, odds were high in favor of you dying (helicopter evac and trauma units were in their infancy).
Even minor accidents meant you got hurt, sometimes severely.
High schools taught Driver's ed, not how to do what kids were adequately figuring out how to do without any help from 'educators', with a lower rate of out of wedlock births...despite cars having bigger back seats.
From general observation, people were better drivers over all, because failure to be competent behind the wheel meant your chances of getting killed were greater.
Now we have ABS, automatic traction/ride control, automatic transmissions with all wheel drive, cruise control, seatbelts, air bags, and crumple zones, not to mention much of the country covered by state-of-the art trauma response to accidents and Trauma centers in hospitals. Even the tools for victim extrication have been refined incredibly, and EMS training is tremendous by comparison. Even the anti-alcohol jihad has been going on for years, but the annual toll of automobile accidents remains in the tens of thousands.
We also have onboard navigation, DVD for the kiddies, cell phones, stereo systems, not to mention a host of things people do on the morning commute (aside from drinking a cup of coffee) which would be better done at home than on the road--because they feel they can(they aren't nearly as busy just driving).
And, yes, without scientific study, there seems to be a sort of 'SUV Syndrome' where drivers seem to get a feeling of invincibility from just being in a bigger vehicle--without regard for the kid in the little car who had the right-of-way, or the guy on the motorcycle they left turn in front of.
As long as people have the perception that they are insulated from the world outside their vehicle, and that an accident will likely not result in their being injured, they will not be paying attention.
BTW, I could see where it would get to be a game, cutting off Volvos to make the automatic brakes kick in...
How about we spend our efforts ensuring that those elected to public office will without fail obey the laws of economics, adhere to the Constitution of the United States and make all decisions in ways that will only benefit the American people and the country. Wonder what that machine would look like? An electric chair perhaps or keep it simple a hangman’s noose.
A warning system could have 4 speakers placed about the driver and emit different sounds and volumes depending on objects around the car. With practice a driver would have audio eyes on the back of their head and could crudely "see" all around them without looking. Also athletes might have an advantage if they wore a head device with 4 speakers. If a child wore such a device while their brain was developing they might be able to develop advanced skills to "see" all around them and be able to walk about blind or in the dark.
One of the most odious duties that our nanny-state delegates to itself is to make driving idiot-proof for everybody, even if nobody ever asked them. I predict that one day cars will be so safe that only the very wealthy will be able to afford the mandatory equipment that makes them so. I've gotten away with driving small cars and motorcycles for almost forty years, and I'm alive to tell of it. The thought of dealing with a highway full of SUVs on auto-pilot is not a happy one.
‘BTW, I could see where it would get to be a game, cutting off Volvos to make the automatic brakes kick in... ‘
Someone told me they had a friend who always blew through 4 way stops. His reasoning was the odds of the other 3 guys running through it were too small to worry about.
Motorcycles, here, but I haven't ridden in a couple of years while the HOG gathers too much dust...
I am begining to think that the cliche blonde on a cell phone in a SUV could improve with auto pilot.
One even flipped me off as she illegal left-turned in front of me while yakking on the phone--she had to take the phone away from her face to turn while she was 'communicating' with me--and I was in a full sized van that day (no, I did not know her).
However, I have driven through some horrible weather, sometimes down to 30 mph, fast enough to bust drifts, slow enough to (hopefully) avoid hitting someone, and fast enough to keep from getting rear-ended. I can see getting out in something like that, fifty miles from anywhere, and having the brakes kicking in ...No thanks. Almost all of the vehicles (and they are legion) in our household have no computer, no power steering, etc.
They may be old, but I can fix them.
There are very few small cars I can reasonably fit in. The VW wasn't one of them, but they were notoriously good in snow, and not that hard to maintain or even rebuild.
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