The Next Generation of Cars

Reported November 2009

BOULDER, Colo. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Scientists, car companies and the federal government are teaming up to reduce traffic congestion and dangerous driving conditions. In the not-too-distant future, cars will be able to communicate traffic information by talking to each other.

This is the future -- cars can talk to each other, wirelessly communicating road conditions to other motorists.

"It does seem rather Star Trekkish, but I think it is a lot closer than we think," Sheldon Drobot, societal impacts expert at NCAR in Boulder, Colorado, told Ivanhoe.

Already on the test track in Detroit, vehicles equipped with computers similar to an airplane’s black box transmit the vehicle’s vital statistics.

"This technology will allow that vehicle to relay the information to surrounding vehicles," Michael Chapman, atmospheric scientist at NCAR in Boulder, Colorado, told Ivanhoe.

"So are the wipers on? Is the ABS engaged? Are the lights on? Those types of observations,“ Chapman explained.

It relays information anonymously and almost instantaneously to other drivers.

"The vehicle has to get the information from some type of infrastructure by the side of the road, or some type of computer, and then the computer will relay that back to vehicles that have the same type of technology on the road," Chapman said.

Most of the components needed for IntelliDrive already exist on vehicles. The challenge is getting them all talking to each other. Real-time information can come in real handy on the road.

Nine car companies are working on the development of IntelliDrive technology, as well as The National Center For Atmospheric Research and The Department Of Transportation. They hope to make it available to the public by 2012.

The American Meteorological Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.-USA, contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Sheldon Drobot
NCAR Program Manager
(303) 497-2705
drobot@ucar.edu

American Meteorological Society
Boston, MA 02108-3693
(617) 227-2425
http://www.ametsoc.org

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
IEEE
Pender McCarter
IEEE http://www.ieee.org
IEEE-USA http://www.ieeeusa.org
p.mccarter@ieee.org

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