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Self-Driving Cars Are Safer When They Talk To Each Other (engadget.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the car-to-car-communications dept.

An anonymous reader quotes Engadget: A University of Michigan public-private partnership called Mcity is testing V2V, or vehicle to vehicle communication, and has found that it makes their autonomous prototypes even safer. V2V works by wirelessly sharing data such as location, speed and direction. Using DSRC, or Dedicated Short Range Communication, V2V can send up to 10 messages per second. This communication allows cars to see beyond what is immediately in front of them -- sensing a red light around a blind curve, or automatically braking for a car that runs a stop sign... The catch of V2V? It has to be installed in the majority of cars and infrastructure (such as traffic lights) to function adequately.

2 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. It would be cool by krray · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I drive a car with level 1 automation [speed control only].

    Two weeks after I bought the car it paid for itself IMHO -- driving at dusk on two lane 50mph packed road; we were all doing 50mph (rare). I saw and was ready to take any action to a car (maybe two) pulling out making a right in front of me. I never saw the Jeep making a left into traffic behind the guy making a right. And then just didn't GO.
    The car slammed on the brakes for me before I even saw the new car. I was more reacting to my car and what the hell is it doing ... "OH, now I see the Jeep". If I was driving I would have plowed into his ass end.

    Two months later I was rear ended. Not bad; I do love that HEMI. :) The car's adaptive cruise control started the hard brake and the emergency braking system finished it off. The car won't stop itself 100%, but it will take you from 100mph to 10mph in short time / distance. Traffic hard stopped from 70mph in the left lane on a highway. I could see traffic stopping; let the car do it's thing better than I could. Otherwise I'd be further back giving myself for distance / time. The computer doesn't need it.

    The guy behind me was way too far back and waiting far too long to HARD brake (more than I did IMHO). Unfortunately the car behind him wasn't ready and pushed his ass right into mine. My car stopped just short enough that after being pushed forward I was still 1' away from the car in front of me ... who at that moment pulled away as traffic was moving forward again. 1 second is all I needed.

    Anyway -- wouldn't it be cool if my car could've communicated to the car that caused the accident (two back) and have its system start a nice slow brake to the stopping / stopped traffic. Re-adjust speed from 70mph to 35mph and maintain would've done it for the next group of cars...

  2. Re:Right up to the point... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Safety critical systems are designed with "defense in depth". So incoming information would be correlated with information from other sources. SDCs have a database with locations of intersections, signs, traffic lights, etc. If a traffic light is around a blind corner, V2V comm could give a "heads up" that the light was red, so the SDC could pre-emptively brake. But if the other car lied, and said the light was green when it was really red, the following SDC would still see the green light with its own cameras as soon as it turned the corner, and still brake faster than a human in the same situation.

    Also, bank robbery is one of the dumbest crimes. Any criminal smart enough to reprogram a V2V system would be smart enough to embezzle from a bank rather than rob one.