Automotive Technology Plus Collaboration: The Formula For Roadway Safety?

The wish for increased vehicle security may be granted in the not-so-distant future. By 2025, experts predict at least one billion vehicles will be on the road, ramping up the urgency to develop more advanced vehicular safety. Rumors of everything from foam-filled airbags capable of expanding throughout the vehicle, to talking, self-guided, Knight Rider-like coupes hitting the market abound. What is actually happening in the engineering world, though, may be even better.

The reality of vehicular technology capable of reaching the masses is that it must be cost-effective, innovative and reliable in addressing actual roadway situations. While cars with star personality are, indeed, being made, automakers and engineers are setting up a network that will allow millions of these smart autos to not only talk with us but talk with each other. By communicating at speeds far greater than human reaction time, vehicles may soon be able to coordinate their own internal systems to mitigate crashes, as well as communicate with other vehicles to avoid them altogether. Such onboard computational power makes multifaceted risk-assessment and advice possible in real-time.

One event that spiked research and standardization activity in the industry was the recent allocation of wireless spectrum for vehicle-to-vehicle safety applications. According to prominent researchers in automotive engineering, the convergence of control, communications and computations is making a dramatic impact on automotive design and development. Carmakers and governments are working together to develop cooperative, distributed safety systems that may dramatically decrease the global number of roadway injuries and deaths.

An organization to watch along with these advancements is the Transportation Active Safety Institute (TASI). Currently proposing a vehicle safety testing facility in North America dedicated to testing these new active safety systems, TASI is a not-for-profit organization. Formed by four universities and a prominent manufacturer in the industry, TASI is on a self-declared mission to encourage innovation, expand the active safety knowledge base and hasten the industry's alignment of worldwide system architecture, performance standards and testing methodologies. Their tests and interactions with manufacturers, other universities and standards-setting organizations just may help determine future manifestations of vehicular safety.

Such unprecedented global cooperation of automotive suppliers, vehicle manufacturers, government regulatory agencies and academia is expected to increase the acceptance of active safety systems, dramatically reduce their costs, and decrease the societal and economic impact of collisions. Automotive engineers are at the forefront of these efforts, making daily advancements to ensure roadway safety is a matter of course.

Precursors of this technology are already on the road thanks to these engineers, and certain manufacturers have hundreds of patents on safety systems. Pre-crash warnings systems with forward sensors that can predict imminent crashes and communicate with other in-vehicular systems to deploy counter-measures are out there. Such systems ingeniously combine active and passive safety features to decelerate crash energy and help enhance the benefits of restraints. This not only allows the driver to react more effectively, but may reduce injuries to other parties as well. Smart cruise control, active night vision, lane departure warning, side alert and rear-view cameras are out there too, and they are also capable of being integrated with braking, throttle, steering and other systems. Imagine a cocoon of safety: object detection sensors in the side panels, a combination of front and rear cameras, a 76 GHz electronically scanning radar, pre-crash sensors, airbags and seat belts - all communicating to keep passengers as safe as possible.

Studies show buyers want to not only know their vehicles look good, get good mileage and are environmentally friendly, but also that they are equipped with advanced safety systems. Today's vehicle market isn't driven only by aesthetics; it's driven by intelligent choices. Traffic accidents happen every day. Consumers know this. Satisfying them is just a matter of making sure they get what they want - and what they need - to feel safer.

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