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Peer to Peer Networking for Road Traffic
alecclews writes "The BBC is reporting on some German research to allow the exchange of information between road vehicles about travel conditions using peer to peer networking (I assume some sort of mesh). Cars or bikes experiencing problems would pass data that would ripple down the chain of vehicles behind them. 'For example, cars could spot oil on the road by combining temperature readings with wheel traction information. A wheel slipping on the road even though the temperature was not low enough for frost or ice would suggest oil or another slippery substance was present. Once a car detected this sort of danger, information about it would be generated and passed down the line of vehicles approaching the patch of oil.'"
I've been thinking about this one on occasion for a few years now...
The only things that need be passed along are current GPS location ( deliberately imprecise by about 20ft ), current velocity ( deliberately imprecise by about 10mph ), last 5 secs acceleration on all 3 axes and a time stamp.
The other function that a car should do is listen to the traffic going the other way and pass on an average of what it hears. ( This averaging function is crucial. It enables velocity and location to be reported without giving up evidence of speeding.
As an example: northbound traffic reports the four pieces of data. Southbound traffic listens to it and averages it. A minute or more later the southbound traffic repeats that to the northbound traffic who are soon to encounter the situatuion. It keeps repeating it - interspersed with other data about other locations - with decreasing frequency as it gets further away.
It's not a matter of choice, cars will be able to be tracked at some point, but I think there may be choice for a while
... not everyone is 100% fully aware and even when we are, we sometimes panic because we have too little time to make a wise decision.
What I do think though, is that I've always thought about this kind of system, whereby if there is a care accident, each car that is surrounded is alerted and the driver is made fully aware.
As for traffic accidents in the UK, I think this system would be very welcome.. Personally, I would very much welcome a system like this
Personally, I think more people will be interested in redirecting traffic around the rounds they drive on, especially in rush our.
i would like to see this used with a heads up display on the windshield to mark the dangers (like oil or ice), thereby avoiding annoying computer voices, alarms, idiot lights that we all ignore, etc.
probably a little further off, but i think a better system.
Here in the UK our traffic cameras are about to be upgraded to included license plate identification.
There are probably more cameras than cars on the road.
Do you think they need to put something in your car to know where you are?
liqbase
.... would come from VoIP connectivity between nearby vehicles. We wouldn't be as prone to road-rage type behavior if we could easily speak with people in adjacent cars. If I could say, "Ahem, excuse me," instead of tailgating and flashing my headlights at the idiot camping in the passing lane, both his and my blood pressure would benefit.
A lot of dangerous/reckless driving behavior comes down to the dehumanizing nature of cars. If you see traffic as a collection of people and not anonymous metal cages, you'll be a more considerate and safer driver.
Automatically spotting and checking for oil on the road... yeah, I guess that's cool, but it's not the most important use of this tech.
I could see more bad.
A car in front if me gets the signal there is an oil slick comming up, that guy is gonna change lanes to avoid it completely. I could get the signal just after him, and so on, everyone will want to change lanes. And of course if someone behind me wants to change lanes and drive faster then everyone else, sideswipes, people getting cut off, panic. It just sounds like a bad idea all together.
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