But that does not mean there isn’t a great deal of room for improvement. Annual highway fatalities still average more than 30,000 people, the equivalent of half the population of Warner-Robins dying every year. With the goal of further reducing car accidents and the death and injuries that accompany them, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended that cars be equipped with systems that would allow them to communicate and provide an advance warning of potential accidents.
These systems would send the vehicle’s velocity, location, direction, and speed, to other vehicles, and the computers could determine if a collision is likely. Because the computers in cars can analyze this information 10 times per second, it would recognize dangerous situations long before a human could recognize and process the threat.
The NTSB made its recommendations after review two fatal school bus accidents last year. Both occurred at intersections and this system holds great potential to prevent these types of crashes. The auto industry argues the recommendation is premature, but the NTSB believes this technology holds “great promise” to save lives.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Technology for cars to talk to each other urged,” Joan Lowy, Associated Press, July 23, 2013
