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Technology | DOI: 10.1145/2717177 Tom Geller
Car Talk
Vehicle-to-vehicle communication is coming. Are we ready for it?
vest in development if no one else
does—or if their technologies do not
work together.
“Whenever a system has to be
standardized, a mandate has to be
given,” says Neelam Barua, automotive and transportation industry analyst for Frost and Sullivan. “That was
the case for antilock braking systems
and back-up cameras.” As a result,
industry groups such as Europe’s
CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America have been
working to establish standards for
vehicle-to-vehicle communication,
while governments decide how to
implement them.
Barua believes V2X requirements
will be enacted in Europe soon af-
ter European Union-funded trials
are completed this year, although
European automakers prefer a mar-
ket-driven approach. In the U.S., the
DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safe-
ty Administration (NHTSA) paired
the release of its lengthy report with
an “Advance notice of proposed rule-
making” (ANPRM) which “initiates
[proposals] ... to require vehicle-to-ve-
hicle (V2V) communication capability
“V2X”—stand poised for widespread
adoption, appearing in new-model
cars as early as 2016, and they are likely
to be required eventually, despite cur-
rent consumer fears.
Like back-up cams, V2X technologies promise safety advantages even
if fully driverless cars never become
a reality. A report released by the
U.S. Department of Transportation
(DOT) in August posited that two specific V2V applications would prevent
more than 500,000 crashes and 1,000
deaths per year in the U.S.: “
Intersection Movement Assist” (IMA), which
warns of cross-traffic at intersections,
and “Left Turn Assist” (LTA), which
watches for traffic approaching from
the opposite direction when making a left turn. Other anticipated V2V
applications could include collision
avoidance in stop-and-go traffic and
at highway speeds; speed maximization (and gas savings) for signals and
traffic, and parking assistance.
While V2X’s proponents tout that
drivers remain anonymous under the
proposed standards, some applications could also be used by law enforcement, for example to prevent a vehicle
from entering a restricted area.
There is a big difference between
onboard sensors and V2X technolo-
gies. A back-up camera is useful the
moment it is installed in a vehicle, re-
gardless of whether any other vehicle
has one. Development continues to be
strong in systems with V2X-like fea-
tures, even though they do not actually
communicate with other cars or road
infrastructure. For example, the 2009
model year saw Opel introduce its quasi-
V2I “Opel Eye” technology, which
uses cameras to recognize road signs
and lane markings; and for the 2014
model year Mercedes-Benz debuted
its quasi-V2V “Distronic Plus” system,
which uses radar to judge distances to
other cars.
True V2X technology offers capabilities those systems could not provide,
such as warning of conditions that are
undetectable by sight or radar, at a distance up to 300 meters. The message
set uniquely identifies vehicles and infrastructure components using a fast
point-to-point signal with relatively
few protocol requirements.
Governments, Automakers,
and the Public
Yet V2X systems are only as useful as
the network to which they are connected, whether that network’s nodes
are in other cars (V2V) or on lampposts, traffic lights, or the roadway
itself (V2I). That could cause a stalemate, as automakers are loath to in-