While Google’s self-driving car is getting heaps of attention, a lesser-known effort that would employ cutting edge technologies to make regular automobiles safer is fast gaining traction.
Under the “connected vehicle” program being developed by federal and state officials, cars, trucks and buses bristling with gadgets would wirelessly communicate with each other as well as with traffic signals, pavement-embedded sensors and other road equipment.
Drivers then would get automatic warnings about everything from icy bridges and accidents in their paths to cars racing at them through red lights and lane changes they should avoid because another vehicle is next to them.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is due to make key decisions next year about how to proceed, and authorities expect connected-vehicle devices to start showing up in cars by 2019.
“This is going to be a very big deal,” said Greg Larson, chief of the office of traffic operations research at the California Department of Transportation, which has been studying the concept. Calling the government’s timetable “very realistic,” he added, “I don’t see any technical challenges in getting this done.”