Next-Gen Smart Cars Predict Crashes

Jan. 30, 2008 -- Cars are already computers on wheels, and so it won't be long before they come with their own wireless connection. A new prototype system for cars that builds on the inevitability of this technology could make commuting safer by alerting drivers of traffic jams and potential collisions.

The Collision Warning System could save lives. It could also help usher in the age of the connected car, where vehicles communicate with each other and the Internet.

"Even if you do not see the car you might collide with, the system can indicate the potential danger," said Jose Ignacio Herrero Zarzosa, an industrial engineer at GMV in Boecillo, Spain, and coordinator of Reposit, a European project to make cars aware of potential hazards.

According to Zarzosa, most safety systems in use today are passive, such as airbags, which react only after a crash. They are also generally radar- and laser-based, detecting obstacles within a 160-foot range or so, in two directions.

An active system could see with a 360-degree field of view, and predict collisions up to 1,600 feet away, even at high speeds.

To test how such a system might work, Zarzosa's team is looking at combining GPS, an increasingly common navigation tool, with a communication protocol called Vehicle2Vehicle (think Wi-Fi for cars).

Here's how it works: GPS pinpoints the car's location. The car-to-car communication link provides information about the relative position of nearby vehicles. Custom software uses that data to figure out where the cars will be a few seconds into the future. If it predicts a collision, the driver gets a warning.