Vehicle anti-collision systems

[AmberClad]

I was reading up on this anti-collision system on the BBC site. This particular system seems pretty dubious to me; would many people be willing to use it knowing that it relies on WiFi and could probably be tapped into by the police? They'd be able to know pretty easily if the car was speeding or moving erratically. (Yes, I know that in theory, you shouldn't be speeding at all, but I think we're all aware that most people don't drive at or below the speed limit )

What are some other, more viable technologies that could be used? I recall some cars that have proximity detectors used when the car is backing up, not sure what mechanism that uses though.

 

[PottedMeat]

Yeah, I really wouldn't like data being passed between vehicles on the road. Besides the privacy stuff there are so many technical hurdles to get over ( using what frequencies where, what data to tx/rx, etc. as the article says ).

I think future systems will have to be fairly passive or reflection based. So maybe a car with a ring of sensors and non visual/auditory range emitters ( like radar/lidar/ultrasonic ) and some stuff to warn/wake up the driver. Image processing power shouldn't be a problem, but the software probably is.

Diddn't some Fords come with ultrasonic sensors/emitters for backing up, or used to? I haven't heard much about that for a while, I guess it's just cheaper to rig a camera nowadays to the GPS/DVD entertainment system.

 

[dkozloski]

Any system would have to be absolutely reliable. Imagine what the lawyers would do if the anti-collsion system actually created an accident. As it stands they can't keep two trains from colliding on the same track. Add some traffic lanes and idiots and it becomes impossible.

 

[AmberClad]

I tend to think that any such system would have to be self-contained too. In other words, you can't make any assumptions about what systems, if any, other cars around you are equipped with. If every car around you except one has this networked WiFi system, you just know that it's probably that one car (which is invisible to your WiFi system) that's going to cut you off .

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@ PottedMeat
I was thinking some sort of radar-based system too. Not too sure how expensive or inexpensive that would be. From reading Wiki, it might be more expensive than laser-based. I wonder if it might be more reliable in inclement weather though.

Some things I'd personally like to see:
- A frontal proximity sensor or range finder that would send info onto the car's cruise control computer, and have it always maintain a certain distance from any cars in front of you. (The distance would be dependent on the current speed.) I think a few luxury cars already have this.
- A top-down computerized display (possibly integrated into the GPS nav system?) that would show the positions of any cars immediately around your own.

 

[dkozloski]

Cars already have a system for showing the position of nearby cars; it's called eyeballs and mirrors. Just about any additional display system is going to become an intolerable distraction. In heavy traffic at present, a driver is never more than 2 or 3 seconds from a crash. Alarms, flashing lights, voices, or anything else is going to be a disaster. It's bad enough having your wife backseat drive. Add a nagging electronic system and it's temper ballistic. Something that would force increased distances between cars is going to trigger even more road rage. Total conrol from a remote location can't keep rapid transit cars from hitting each other. As long as people are people there'll be car wrecks.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
Yes, I know that in theory, you shouldn't be speeding at all, but I think we're all aware that most people don't drive at or below the speed limit

You mean to say you live somewhere that people don't drive 20 below the speed limit because it?s safe?

(N.B. these same people drive at the same speed through towns, for exactly the same reason- It's a safe speed)

If you are interested in anti-collision see if you can find the original test of the Mercedes S-class anti collision technology. It didn't work (they forgot to turn it on!).