Social networking for cars
We talked last week about a system that once outfitted to cars would detect surrounding smartphone users, via their native wi-fi capabilities; well today we’ll be talking about one of the largest ever, real-world test of a “car-to-X” or C2X communication systems.
This system comes from Germany, where Daimler are labeling it as being the first “social network” for cars; they’ve outfitted 120 vehicles for this trial which are linked to each other as well as networked to other things, such as traffic infrastructure – lights and such. The goal of the system being so that each car would update the others on the current traffic conditions that it is going through.
The idea behind the C2X technology is such that it would alert other drivers when and if traffic is clogged over the crest of a hill, or simply to prevent a pile-up by providing information to the driver about an imminent emergency stop.
The field trial will continue across the Rhine-Main region of Germany up till the end of the year, so as to properly test the systems in everyday real-life driving and traffic conditions. The developers are hoping that this communication system will become a major player in regards to future mobility and that it will allow for the detection of hazardous objects and situations long before your vehicle gets into visual range of said obstacles.
The C2X system isn’t just a German-only thing, the US Government has shown interest in the technology by saying that it has the potential of reducing the number of crashed by up to eighty percent.
This is definitely a trend for the future, projections estimating that the proliferation of safety assist technologies will help cud the road toll in Australia by 75 percent by 2030.
