By Daniel P. Bearth, Staff Writer This story appears in the Aug. 27 print edition of Transport Topics.
The U.S. Department of Transportation last week launched a test to determine if trucks, cars and buses equipped with wireless devices that allow the vehicles and highway infrastructure to “talk” to each other will prevent crashes, and whether such connected vehicle technology should be required on all vehicles.
The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute will conduct the test of 2,850 vehicles on 73 miles of roadway in Ann Arbor, Mich.
“Cars talking to other cars is the future of motor safety,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said as he announced the start of the yearlong program on Aug. 21.
Several area trucking companies, including less-than-truckload carrier Con-way Freight and food distributor Sysco Corp., contributed vehicles for the test. Daimler AG’s truck-making unit Freightliner also contributed vehicles.
Some of the tractors are equipped with anti-collision radar and a tablet display device to warn drivers of unsafe conditions, said Ben Pierce, a researcher for Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio. Battelle is also supplying signal controllers for traffic lights and telematics units for transit buses.
Pierce said the purpose of the test is to prove the technology works and show how drivers react to electronic messages in real-world conditions.
The test is the first of its kind for dedicated short-range communications, a technology similar to Wi-Fi that allows high-speed data transmission over relatively short distances. The Federal Communications Commission allocated 75 MHz of spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band for use by Intelligent Transportation Systems vehicle safety and mobility applications.
Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure “have the potential to significantly reduce many of the most deadly types of crashes through real-time advisories alerting drivers to imminent hazards — such as veering too close to the edge of the road, vehicles suddenly stopped ahead, collection paths during merging, the presence of nearby communications devices and vehicles, sharp curves or slippery patches of roadway ahead,” according to a DOT fact sheet.
LaHood said the technology “gives drivers the information to make safe decisions while on the road.”
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials estimate that vehicle-to-vehicle safety technology could help drivers avoid or reduce the severity of four out of five crashes involving unimpaired drivers.
In a study of drivers conducted earlier this year by DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Research and Innovative Technologies Administration, officials found a high acceptance rate for vehicle-to-vehicle, or V2V, technologies.
Nine out of 10 drivers said they would like to have V2V safety features on their vehicles, DOT said.
NHTSA officials said information from the safety pilot test and other research will be used to determine whether to proceed with additional activities involving connected vehicle technology, including possible rule-makings.
Bloomberg News contributed to this article.
