The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced today that it is in the planning stages for new rules that
Stop signs mean stop, the usual reason for stopping is to look both ways at an intersection to see if anyone else is coming. In areas without a lot of traffic stopping at stop signs burns fuel and wastes time/money.
Researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute are in the early stages of research in which, instead of putting the road signs on the road, interactive signs appear inside the car. If no other car is present at the intersection, the will driver can drive on through.
August 6 is 100th anniversary of the traffic light at an intersection in Cleveland, Ohio. Today, traffic lights are controlled by sensors that include proximity sensors with some intelligent sensors using localized software. In the future, traffic lights may make driving safer, reduce commutes, save time and lower emissions.
Researchers at MIT have developed a means of computing optimal timings for city stoplights that can significantly reduce drivers’ average travel times. The software adjusts signal times at intersections distributed across the entire city, with the objective of trying to improve conditions across the entire city, while present systems are timed to local information
President Obama got into the driver’s seat at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, VA to try out vehicle driving simulation.
“Man, this is so exciting,” he remarked. “I haven’t been on the road in a long time.” After his test drive he said, “It was sort of like ‘Knight Rider.”
The president after a tour of the facility stated that self-driving cars could cut reduce accidents, gas use and commuting times. He noted that 80% of crashes could be abated and 3,9 million gallons of gas.
He also thought it was great that as a father of teenager, making driving safer is important to him as well as being good for the economy.
Obama wants Congress to fund more programs of the Federal Highway Trust fund. He also reported that traffic costs the average driver $800 a year in gas and outdated roads cause businesses to pay $27 billion more in freight costs.
He like that the technology of V2V and V2I helps saves lives, saves money and leads to new jobs in new industries.
He said, “Instead of barely paying our bills in the present, we should be investing in the future.”
He did complain that the driving simulator did not have radio.
The President visited the Human Factors Laboratory and Saxton Transportation Operations Laboratory, and spoke to employees .
Last week, the most Canadian connected concept car, ever, was shown at the APMA( Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association) in Canada and one that the Ontario’s drunken mayor Rob Ford can’t drive because it has an alcohol interlock device on it.
There have been reports that just say what types of devices were installed in the car running the QNX operating system but not the actual devices makers or providers.
The specially decked out Lexus RX350 was connected and reconfigured by the University of Waterloo.
Many of us have seen the problems that arise when someone drives the wrong direction in the lane. Often it is someone who goes down a one way street, the wrong way. Or it could be on a curved highway. In the case of Germany, there are 1,800 wrong-way drivers reported on the autobahn network, annually. This kind of mistake leads to serious accident with one in six deaths in these kinds of collisions.
Connected car technology is hitting the road in Michigan through two initiatives, the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
The University of Michigan Mobility Transformation Center was recently launched focusing on emerging technology in collaboration with the government and transportation industry to make improvements to travel for both humans and cargo.
At Mobile World Congress, many companies announced products and services for the connected car industry. New technology, cloud and analytics services were revealed. Companies with new announcements included SAP, BMW, Qualcomm, Jasper Wireless, Tech Manhindra, Samsung, WiPro and Agnik.
Connected car wear for people is the latest trend in connected car technology. Recently, connected car integration from car and tech makers included Google Glass
The Association of Global Automakers (Global Automakers) support vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications technology because it can to save thousands of lives.
AGA also supports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) research and V2V communications.
We may be driving more safely in the future when cars connect to each other. The U.S. government is looking into cars, buses and trucks communicate to each other and to the Department of Transportation to cut down on accidents, gas consumption and speeding. After reviewing research, the government will work on laws to require vehicle data connections in future models.
It’s called Vehicle-to-Vehicle communication in which vehicles talk to each other. It’s sort of like data saying to your car, “I’m over here traveling a 30 mph and you’re going 25 mph, get ready for a fender bender,” or “Watch out the drunk driving this car is going to run the stop sign!”