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Honda Makes Motorcycle Talk To Oncoming Cars
An anonymous reader writes "The system generates warnings to riders and drivers of other vehicles by continuous exchange of positioning data from satellite GPS sources. This is particularly relevant as road users approach intersections, alerting them to other vehicles that are potentially on a collision course, allowing avoidance manoeuvres."
www.hondanews.eu
It seems like a bad idea. If 95% of vehicles have it people will become lax in watching for those 5% that don't. Why not just pay attention with your vision orbs?
Man, you really need that seminar!
This could be very good for the safety of motorcyclists if widely deployed. Many motorcycle accidents involve cars pulling out in front of motorcycles and the car driver saying that they didn't see the motorcycle.
My only concern is for privacy. The broadcast message should not include the VIN or any other unique identifier that could be used for tracking.
More at the Honda Site. It seems to use a Car-to-Car protocol that is in development.
All this kit though looks like it would add significant cost to a motorcycle. :(
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
It should warn when the motorcyclist is doing something asinine, which many in my state seem to do.
<kitt-voice>
Michael, you are not wearing a helmet.
Michael, perhaps driving between rows of cars is not the best method of saving time?
Michael, do you know what "yield" means?
Michael, zooming down the highway at 80mph isn't very safe.
Michael, watch out for that dangerous inters - *Connection severed*
</kitt-voice>
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
I've been riding motorcycles for 26 years (more miles riding than driving cars) and my body of experience tells me this: it doesn't matter how many fancy gadgets they come up with, the average automobile driver just plain isn't looking for and doesn't see motorcyclists. The only way I have been able to preserve my life and retain all my original body parts is by assuming they're all actively trying to kill me, and protect myself accordingly.
Exactly. As a rider myself I would be wary of such a system. I'd worry that it would split my concentration and that I wouldn't be as focused on every curb cut and side street as a potential threat.
On the other hand, I wouldn't mind it if oncoming cars were alerted to my presence before they come flying out of a side street (or merge into my lane on the highway if possible).
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
I think they need to do buildings first. Maybe not to ward off on-coming traffic, but for triangulation. If buildings like the towns city hall were to pipe up and give out their latitude/longitude, it shouldn't be too hard to remove the unreliable gps from the equation. The more buildings of significance were to participate the easier it would be to create maps based on that town/city. Then cars can locate themselves and others. If 75% of cars have local positioning system, then it becomes mandatory.
Security would be a nightmare though.
Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
and it's useless. Loud pipes are for annoying people not for any other use.
it's simple physics... if the loud noise is exiting the BACK of the bike throgh a directed horn facing and traveling away from you, how the hell will the bimbo in the BMW that is 500 feet ahead of you going to hear it? she wont and she does not. even the big motorcycle safety organizations refuse the claims about lout pipes save lives.
Loud pipes are simply for being a public ass. No other reason, stop trying to justify it and just admit you like annoying people.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
>I wouldn't be as focused on every curb cut and side street as a potential threat.
That is exactly was airline pilot said when TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) was mandated. Today, most of them would feel naked flying without it.
It just another tool to be integrated into your scan and could prove to be a life saving feature when approaching a blind intersection on an unlit country road at night.
Something like this MAY have helped when I got collected by a 4WD (truck) with a bullbar last year while riding home from work. Here I was on a bright red sports bike, headlights on, stopped at an intersection behind a row of cars. BAM, right in to the back of me and pushed me into the back of the car in front like a pinball.
He swore he didn't see me. Granted, he was DUI, but a little alert telling him that he was approaching something at 60kph that was going to break when he hit it would have been useful. And less painful. For me, anyway.
I intend to live forever, or die trying. - Groucho Marx
Glider pilots developed a low cost collision avoidance system called FLARM.
The small-size, low-cost, low-power device FLARM broadcasts its own position and speed vector (as obtained with an integrated GPS) over a license-free ISM band radio transmission. At the same time it listens to other devices based on the same standard. Intelligent motion prediction algorithms predict short-term conflicts and warn the pilot accordingly by acoustical and visual means. FLARM incorporates a high-precision WAAS 16-channel GPS receiver and an integrated low-power radio transceiver.
See www.FLARM.com
Motorcycle: Hey you! Car! Look out for me, I'm right over here!!
Car: Wha..? I can't see you. Who the hell is this?
Motorcycle: I'm right here! Can't you see me?!
Car: I think I can.... oh I can s... *BLAM*