This is already in place in the marine world. Commercial ships for years have had to have an AIS transponder. It transmits the ship hailing info as well as course and speed. This has started to expand into the recreational boating world starting with AIS receivers that show those ships on a chartplotter. The price for receivers and transponders is coming down and creeping more into the recreational boating realm.
A lower powered automated system for cars just makes sense.
U.S. DOT
The United States Department of Transportation plans to examine the effectiveness of connected vehicle technology that enables cars to communicate with each other. This technology equips cars with wireless communications radios that can send signals to each other, indicating their location on the road. These signals are subsequently received and displayed in the form of a dashboard warning, preventing crashes as a result of blind spots, rear-end collisions, and other accidents.
The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor, Mich. will begin the pilot study this August for the federal government. The Department of Transportation will use it to decide whether this sort of technology is something that should be implemented nationwide to ensure auto safety, or if including it could be a decision made by the manufacture. A similar discussion has surrounded the installation of rearview cameras in automobiles.
This year-long study will consist of nearly 3,000 automobiles from eight different manufactures. Citizens who use their cars frequently will serve as the drivers to help the researchers gain significant data about the technology.
[via Governing.com]
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