New Technology To Stop Car Accidents Unleashed

With the no of cars increasing day by day the chances of meeting with an accident is also multiplying. So to overcome this problem a new technology funded by Department of Transport (DOT), USA is being put forward that aims at cutting road accidents and traffic jams.

Already these days many high class cars are pre fitted with equipments and sensors that are capable of spotting a vehicle in drivers blind spot and  few even with the one that warns about the car drifting out of the lane. But these technologies which primarily use radar, lasers and other sensors have limited access.  While this new technology under consideration which they call car to car communication is more sophisticated and could provide pretty early warnings like when a car several vehicles ahead applies brakes suddenly. DOT granted almost $15 million to the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute to test the technology, also called vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. The system mainly uses short range radio system to send and receive messages from other cars and even from traffic equipments. It is believed that almost 80% accidents can be avoided y this. This is viewed as the next major safety measure apart from the present safety belts, air bags and other electronic gadgets.

The key feature of this system is that it behaves as if it has a brain of its own, it will direct the driver when it is unsafe to pass and about someone coming at the intersection at a higher speed. For all these purpose each car will be equipped with a radio that signals its speed and direction of travel, as determined by GPS, to other cars. It will also send this information to suitably equipped traffic equipment.

To start with the testing procedure the University of Michigan has undertaken the charge with eight automakers. They will provide 64 cars with all the equipments along with a group of cars with additional fitted radars so that they can transmit signals. Initially the Ann Arbor is being considered as the testing area. It being a small and conc. area with only three thorough fares out, all the equipped cars is more likely to face each other providing better chances of analysis. The test will be conducted over the year and the analysis will be done by DOT’s National Highway Safety Traffic Administration. The technology if approved will get into the social life in coming years and this could completely change the scenario of driving.