U.S. Department of Transportation tests out “talking” cars

The United States government and the University of Michigan are equipping 3,000 cars, trucks and buses in Ann Arbor, Michigan with wireless devices that will allow the vehicles to alert drivers to speed, location and traffic congestion.

Fitted with connected Wi-Fi technology, the vehicles will communicate or “talk” with each other and with road infrastructure systems to help avoid collisions and improve traffic flow, says U.S. transportation secretary Ray LaHood.

“Today is a big moment for automotive safety,” LaHood suggests. “This cutting-edge technology offers real promise for improving both the safety and efficiency of our roads. That is a winning combination for drivers across America.”

Conducted by University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), the road test, or model deployment, is a first-of-its-kind test of connected vehicle technology in the real world. The test cars, trucks and buses, most of which have been supplied by volunteer participants, are equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication devices that will gather extensive data about system operability and its effectiveness at reducing crashes.

DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that V2V safety technology could help drivers avoid or reduce the severity of four out of five unimpaired vehicle crashes. To accomplish this, the model deployment vehicles will send electronic data messages, receive messages from other equipped vehicles, and translate the data into a warning to the driver during specific hazardous traffic scenarios. Among others, such hazards include an impending collision at a blind intersection, a vehicle changing lanes in another vehicle’s blind spot, or a rear collision with a vehicle stopped ahead.

“Vehicle-to-vehicle communication has the potential to be the ultimate game-changer in roadway safety – but we need to understand how to apply the technology in an effective way in the real world,” says NHTSA administrator David Strickland. “NHTSA will use the valuable data from the ‘model deployment’ as it decides if and when these connected vehicle safety technologies should be incorporated into the fleet.”