Monday, September 7, 2015

Wireless Technology Makes Driving Much Safer

 How often have you encountered a dangerous situation while driving? Maybe you had not seen an upcoming car and almost collided with the vehicle. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

Luckily, there is a new and upcoming technological breakthrough that can allow cars to communicate with each other. It's called "Car-to-Car Communication" and is expected to be available 1-2 years from now. General Motors was one of the first major contributors to this project, claiming a product will come into picture by 2017. Along with General Motors, the University of Michigan and the National Highway Traffic Administration have worked towards getting this program up and running by creating around 3,000 vehicles equipped with this technology and putting them on the roads. The intuition behind the technology is that the cars send information through their GPS systems such as positioning and speed, which then gets transmitted to the other cars in the area. This can be seen in the picture below.



Of course, this only works if regulations are made to ensure that all cars share the same type of technology. And at the beginning of this transition the initial few cars that do have this technology are limited to communicating with cars of similar brands, but many major companies such as Honda, Nissan, Volkswagon and Audi have been working to standardize such communication with as many cars on the road as possible.

However, with such advancements the issue of privacy has arose. With cars sending information about themselves to other cars 10 times per second, users are worried that other private information such as license plate numbers and driver information can't be found. The issue of privacy is always an issue when dealing with more advanced technology. Many people are afraid that information is no longer their own and that anyone can access it, There are claims to keeping data only on a "moment-by-moment basis," which is a little more reassuring.

Another issue I have come across is where this could eventually take the automobile industry in the long run including overall safety on the road. The aim of this communication between cars is to decrease the amount of collisions that can lead to injury a year, but can this cause drivers to be less alert knowing that a system like this is available? What if some users decide that they can be more reckless and try to depend too much on the technology? The communication between cars is only helpful if the driver is willing to listen to the warnings it gives them whilst driving, but that also means having to still be careful of the surroundings around them.

I am by no means saying that this new breakthrough will not bring forth a positive effect for transportation, but I think it's still important to understand that with new technological advances comes some downfalls. I believe this will be very important for drivers because we often do not see something coming before it is too late. With this "Car-to-Car Communication" we will be able to have more vision of our surroundings as long as we continue to stay alert.


1 comment:

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