{"id":391,"date":"2012-12-31T19:54:37","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T19:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=391"},"modified":"2012-12-31T19:54:37","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T19:54:37","slug":"when-cars-talk-we-save-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/when-cars-talk-we-save-time\/","title":{"rendered":"When Cars Talk We Save Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In late August 2012, Ann Arbor, Michigan piloted the largest road test of vehicle to vehicle crash avoidance technology to date.\u00a0 Involving agencies from city, state, federal and top automaker industries, this pilot aimed to find out what cars can do when you enable them to see and talk to each other.\u00a0 This test allowed the auto industries to collaborate with each other, allowing Fords to communicate with Toyota, which in turn can speak to Volkswagens, etc.<\/p>\n<p>3000 vehicles were equipped with transmitters and receivers to communicate with each other and with the infrastructure built into the streets. \u00a0This infrastructure helped the cars gather and transmit data. The cars and streets were outfitted with special equipment to make them as safe as possible.\u00a0 \u00a0The systems in place are to provide advanced warning and alert the driver of impending danger, hopefully leading to fewer accidents.\u00a0 These are the extra that we may very well see on our own cars in the next 5 \u2013 10 years.<\/p>\n<p><b>Equipment:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Roof Mounted Antenna \u2013 Keeps the car connected to other cars and to wireless roadside infrastructure<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Transponder (In Trunk) \u2013 broadcasts vehicles location so that other vehicles can recognize the signal<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Blind Sport Warning Light \u2013 Shows up on side mirror if you try to make a lane change while another car is in your blind spot. <\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Rearview Mirror Camera \u2013 An infrared camera records the drivers face, and another camera records the forward view as the car is in motion.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Collision Indicator \u2013 Notifies the driver through flashing lights on the front windshield and through a vibrating seat that they need to stop immediately to avoid a crash.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Side Cameras \u2013 Cameras mounted on both sides of the vehicle help capture blind spots and intersection scenarios (such as a driver running a red light). <\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Curve Warning Device \u2013 These are actually set up along the streets, not on the car.\u00a0 They notify the vehicles of any sharp turns coming up via dual radio systems that communicate with the cars.\u00a0 They were required to have a range of 300 meters, but during testing worked as far away as 1300 meters. Each unit is powered over Ethernet, has a GPS unit to tell the car the exact location of the curve, and sends data to servers in real time for data tracking.\u00a0 <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The Big Concern<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Obviously safety is one of the greatest reasons for testing this type of equipment.\u00a0 In the United States there are about 33,000-38,000 deaths per year in auto accidents, and roughly 2.2 million are injured.\u00a0 If an early warning system could be developed to help prevent these injuries and fatalities, or even lessen them by, let\u2019s say 15%, wouldn\u2019t it be worth it?<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe width=\"1100\" height=\"619\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WzOd1CxBh78?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Paving the Road for New Laws<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This pilot does something else entirely; something they didn\u2019t necessarily intend.\u00a0 It forces lawmakers and the auto industry to seriously look at cars doing more things for us.\u00a0 The automation of vehicles has been a dream of man for years now, and the biggest roadblock hasn\u2019t been technology, but law.\u00a0 Google has tested driverless cars since before 2005, when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/sebastian_thrun_google_s_driverless_car.html\">Sebastian Thrun<\/a>, Director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View submitted his robotic vehicle to the DARPA Grand Challenge and won the 2 million dollar prize.\u00a0 The Google Driverless car has only had 2 accidents in all its testing \u2013 one was while under manual control, and the other was being rear ended while sitting at a stoplight.\u00a0 Both of them were human errors.\u00a0 The driverless car under automation has driven over 300,000 miles without ever getting in an accident of its own doing.<\/p>\n<p>While some states have allowed these cars, on their roadways, many are skeptical.\u00a0 An attorney for the California DMV was quoted saying \u201c<i>The technology is ahead of the law in many areas<\/i>.\u201d And that the laws, \u201c<i>all presume to have a human being operating the vehicle<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 The New York Times stated that \u201c<i>the technology is now advancing so quickly that it is in danger of outstripping existing law, some of which dates back to the era of horse-drawn carriages.\u201d\u00a0 <\/i>That\u2019s what we hope to change.<\/p>\n<p><b>The End of Wasted Time<\/b><\/p>\n<p>What if your commute was no longer wasted time?\u00a0 What if your car drove for you, and you could work on your laptop, or read the paper, or make an important business call?\u00a0 These things that seem terribly irresponsible to do while driving would be considered quite normal in an automated car.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t be much different than being in a plane or train.\u00a0 Think of that extra hour (or two) every day you would have to work, relax, or talk to your kids.\u00a0 Perhaps you could even be paid for your commute since you would be working.\u00a0 The average driver loses 5 days a year stuck in traffic; let\u2019s not keep wasting that time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In late August 2012, Ann Arbor, Michigan piloted the largest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[508],"tags":[860,861,392],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}