Vehicle to vehicle communications could drive us to a safer place: Industry

The technology will be in cars in Australia by 2017, says Cohda Wireless

Photo credit: Ford Australia.

Photo credit: Ford Australia.

Ford and V2V

Ford US global driver assistance and active safety Mike Shulman confirmed that the car manufacturer is working on V2V technology for cars in the US and Europe. However, no production models that use V2V have been announced at this stage.

According to Shulman, car manufacturers will compete on the number and quality of the V2V-based applications that are offered in their vehicles.

Forecasting the future

Research firm Forrester has forecast the adoption of V2V communications. According to a July 2013 report called The Connected Car by US principal analyst Charles S.Golvin, V2V will include communicating between infrastructure such as traffic signals.

“Today, beyond telematics, vehicle communications to other devices are within the car such as Bluetooth and USB connections to smartphones for voice calling and audio streaming, or enabled via external devices such as E-ZPass toll dongle,” he said in the report.

“New short-range protocols such as dedicated short-range communications [DSRC] enable vehicles to break this local firewall, exchange information with other vehicles and with infrastructure such as traffic lights.”

According to Golvin, DSRC will capitalise on the car’s rich array of sensors to reduce accidents and optimise traffic flow.

He also forecast that many different industries will change as result of V2V communications.

“Mobile operators, with a revenue model increasingly tied to data consumption, now see a class of devices coming to their network.”

Golvin added that car makers such as Ford now see connectivity as a near-term “payoff” when selling cars.

“Richer in-vehicle experiences such as streaming audio services and dictated Twitter feeds enhance the driving experience and thereby improve brand purchase and the likelihood of repeat purchase,” he said.

However, because of regulatory scrutiny and the slow pace of government authorities, local V2V will first extend beyond the car to commercial infrastructure such as parking lots and to toll booths.

“After extensive review and testing, these short-range conservations will begin to take place between vehicles, reducing collision risk and injuries while informing drivers of local change such as a suddenly flooded highway ahead. Finally, local transportation authorities will deploy short-range radios to enable communications between vehicles and transportation control.”

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU, or take part in the Computerworld conversation on LinkedIn: Computerworld Australia

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Tags FordForrester ResearchCohda Wirelessconnected carsvehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology

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