As technology progresses and in-car systems get more and more sophisticated, the driving experience may soon begin to change.
One of the biggest shifts that drivers can expect over the next decade is the adoption of vehicle-to-vehicle communication, which will allow cars and trucks to electronically communicate with each other, hopefully increasing driver awareness and decreasing accidents.
How Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication Will Affect Your Drive
Experts hope that the adoption of vehicle-to-vehicle communication will ultimately improve safety, reduce accidents, and eventually lower insurance rates.
Essentially, all vehicles will be able to communicate information back and forth. For example, if a vehicle on the highway abruptly hits the brakes, it could send an signal to cars behind it informing those vehicles that there is a potential hazard ahead. The vehicles in the rear then pass along the message, further increasing road awareness.
The system could also be used for traffic management, helping vehicles move efficiently through an intersection or merge on to a highway.
In addition to communicating with other cars, vehicles will be able to communicate with infrastructure like stop lights and road signs. The infrastructure could send signals to cars, giving information about road conditions or traffic.
The honest answer is no one really knows exactly how vehicle-to-vehicle communication will directly affect your daily driving, but we do have a basic idea that it will improve safety and driver awareness
In the end, however, most experts believe that the effectiveness of the system will depend on the level of adoption. The more people using vehicle-to-vehicle communication, the better the system will operate. If, however, only one car on the road is equipped with the technology, it won’t have anything to communicate with.
Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication: Closer than You May Expect
While it may seem like a technology of the distant future, elements of vehicle-to-vehicle communication are present in vehicles that are available right now.
For example, adaptive cruise control, available in vehicles from Cadillac, Chrysler, and other brands, monitors vehicle in front of the car and automatically adjusts speeds to maintain a safe distance. Another technology already available is blind spot monitoring, which senses vehicles entering a car’s blind spot and sends a signal to inform the driver.
So we already have a foundation for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, with more technology to slowly become available. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced plans to require the technology on new cars in the near future.
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