GM Takes Another Step In Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications

By Logan Utsman on Tuesday, August 21st, 2012

Given how difficult person-to-person communication can be, getting two vehicles to properly talk to each other could easily prove trying. General Motors will soon take a major step in making vehicle-to-vehicle communication (v2v) much more of a reality. By building eight prototype Cadillac and Buick models with v2v technology and putting them into the real world, a proper infrastructure can be further developed.

“With more than 30,000 people a year killed on our nation’s roads, we need to keep looking for new ways to improve safety and reduce fatalities,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The v2v communication system uses a myriad of sensors and receivers so that participating cars can know the other’s location, speed and direction of travel. When coupled to vehicle-to-infrastructure communication which supplies information such as light timing, road attributes and surface conditions, a vehicle can “know” everything a fully trained, capable and alert driver should. Add in active safety systems that can mitigate throttle, brakes and traction control and the chances of a collision should drop drastically.

The eight GM products fitted with v2v communication will enter into the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Model Deployment Program. They will interact with other fleet vehicles of various shapes and sizes and traverse the busy Ann Arbor, Michigan roads until sometime in 2013. The University of Michigan Transportation Reasearch Institute will oversee the program and give to the NHTSA the end test results. After that, the fate of the cars talking to cars will be left to the hands of the feds.

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