With the vast majority of car accidents caused by error of the drivers involved, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration seeks to give motorists more automated features to increase their awareness of potential hazards. The latest effort involves the advancement of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication systems, which the NHTSA wants to make mandatory for all cars and light trucks in the U.S.
The agency issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on the technology, which gives cars – and other devices – the ability to transmit their location, speed, direction and other information at a rate of 10 times per second. That lets other cars (and drivers) nearby know when a vehicle ahead is braking hard or about to run a red light or changing lanes or barreling fast around a blind curve. These alerts would give drivers enough time to react and prevent a collision.
Officials with NHTSA believe this technology has the potential to mitigate or prevent the severity of 8 out of 10 crashes that don’t involve drugs or alcohol (which is about two-thirds of the total 13 million accidents that happen every year). In essence, V2V has the ability to give drivers a total 360-degree awareness of what’s happening on the road. Continue reading →