Car-to-Car communication – Will V2V minimize road accidents?
Have you ever thought about two or more cars or any other vehicles “talking” to each other? The technology of Car-to-Car communication is going to do that for the sake of preventing the road accidents. This system is part of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology which is estimated to conquer the world in the coming years.
In the United States alone, it is estimated that every hour 4 deaths occur due to fatal accidents. The current Government in the U.S.A. have the plans to launch V2V communication and by the year 2020 every vehicle is going to follow that technology as part of their compulsory plan.
Many automobiles companies have already facilities for “surviving” the road accidents but that’s not enough since things like air bags right in the front of a seat may or may not work. There are cases in which the air bag fails to get inflated the moment it’s needed. So, how about communicating in advance so that it never happens? Just as WiFi network the Car-to-Car communication system too has frequency of 5.9 GHz. They make a mesh network topology and use Cloud system to keep the real-time data of the exact location of every vehicle, their direction and speed. There are cases like at the turns or bends or scenarios such as other vehicle blocking the further vision in which the driver becomes helpless and does not get the slightest idea of what will be the next move. Also at the traffic signal suppose you have started to move due to green signal and the other vehicle is still crossing the road even after the signal shows red light, there are very high chances that you both collide. That collision would be at life’s risk since the speed of at least one of the vehicles is generally high.
The V2V communication is going to alert the driver in advance to slow down the speed so as to avoid possible collisions. At this point the brakes and steering won’t work by their own. Such technology will emerge later and there we will come to an era in which driver-less cars would be the norm. But for now, Car-to-Car communication is the future of the vehicles across the world and firms like GM, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, Nissan and Volkswagen have started showing interest, and some of them have even launched such vehicles; but it is still not that common.
There are a number of possible scenarios in which two or more vehicles may collide with each other and cause mild to medium to serious injuries, and the V2V communication is going to help in those cases. Such cases could be as follows:
1. Left turn assistance – This warns the driver in case due to limited vision he is not able to make decision whether there are vehicles oncoming while he wants to turn left.
2. Forward collision warning – The system will warn you to slow down if you are driving at a very high speed and there are chances that you hit the slow moving or stopped vehicles. This is very helpful in case the driver doesn’t know about the other vehicles’ location due to several hurdles on the way like turning roads or other heavy vehicles blocking the further vision.
3. Intersection assistance – In the traffic signal areas, the system will alert the driver to slow down the speed if another vehicle is coming at the cross street in the same speed as yours or even more. This will prevent T-bone accidents that could be fatal.
4. Blind spot or lane change warning – The system will warn if it’s unsafe to change the lane. The driver will also be notified if any other vehicle is about to enter your blind-spot area.
5. Do not pass warning – If the driver drives in a two-lane road and the other vehicle comes in the opposite direction that is in high speed and possibly may collide, the system alerts in advance. Also if two or more vehicles are moving ahead and one of them suddenly puts brakes, the driver is alerted in advance since through this system he is always made aware of every vehicle’s current positioning.
Car-to-Car communication is going to be one of the greatest hits since it will minimize the accidents to a great extent. This will soon be a reality and everyone will witness that in the coming years every vehicle’s configuration will include V2V system. Let us wait since then.
