Study To Test 'Talking' Cars That Would Warn Drivers Of Unseen Dangers

Experts predict that our cars will one day routinely "talk" to one another with wireless communication devices, possibly preventing huge numbers of traffic accidents.

On Tuesday, the world's largest study of connected car technology launched in Ann Arbor, Mich. The technology is designed to help drivers avert all sorts of common dangers on the road.

Say, for example, you're driving along at about 35 to 40 mph with several cars ahead of you. Now imagine that the driver in the lead car turns a corner and suddenly hits the brakes.

"Not only is our view of that sudden braking impeded by the traffic between us, [but] possibly the traffic between us doesn't realize that that car has slammed on its brakes as well," says Melissa Donia, who is working with the Department of Transportation on the study.

Normally, that might make you the latest victim of a multiple car pileup. The cars in the study, however, are equipped with wireless transmitters, which send out the car's location, speed and direction at a rate of 10 times per second.

Other cars also have receivers, along with audio warning systems. So when the car in front randomly slams on the brakes, a driver of a car that has a warning system has extra seconds to respond.

Soon, nearly 3,000 Ann Arbor motorists will have some version of the devices on their cars. For a year, they'll travel their usual ways, occasionally crossing paths.

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute will study how the technology works in real life. UMTRI Director Peter Sweatman thinks the potential to save lives is huge. "Motor vehicle injuries and fatalities are the No. 1 public health problem in this country; I don't think people realize that," Sweatman says. "So between the ages of 1 and 35, that's the No. 1 cause of death."

Most of those accidents are caused by human error.

The technology is not without its risks. Many people are already distracted when they drive, and that could get worse if people become complacent about the need to watch the road.

There's also the philosophical objection, because now it is the car telling the driver what to do.

"Isn't that kind of un-American?" says Car and Driver magazine Editor-in-Chief Eddie Alterman. "I mean what would Teddy Roosevelt say about this? What happened to the rugged individualist?"

Alterman says this is all too "Big Brother" for his taste, but his fears weren't widely shared among people who tried out connected cars on closed courses in earlier tests.

This study does have its limits, and it is still early in the process. It could be decades before a truly connected vehicle future arrives. Even when it does, however, it might never replace the hands-down, best lifesaving device invented so far: the seat belt.

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