In July Ford opened a Smart Intersection near its headquarters in Dearborn, MI (Fig. 3). The intersection is intended to help leverage GPS technology and wireless infrastructure-to-vehicle communications to reduce traffic accidents and ease congestion.

Ford's intersection communicates with test vehicles to warn drivers of potentially dangerous traffic situations, such as when a vehicle is about to run through a red light. The intersection is equipped with technology that can transmit a digital map of the intersection, maps of surrounding stop sign intersections and crosswalks, lane-specific GPS location, and traffic light status and timing information.

When the in-vehicle computer receives data indicating a potential hazard, it can warn drivers through visual and audio alerts. The vehicle's collision avoidance system can use that information to determine if the car can cross the intersection safely or if it needs to stop before reaching it. If the system determines the need to stop and senses that the driver is not decelerating quickly enough, the collision avoidance system can issue visual and audio warnings to the driver.

“A vehicle equipped with a collision avoidance system could also act as a traffic probe, and communicate its presence and travel history when it encounters a smart intersection,” said Mike Shulman, technical leader, Ford Active Safety Research and Advanced Engineering. That ability would complement the SIRIUS Travel Link feature Ford currently offers (Fig. 4). Travel Link combines real-time traffic speed and flow data with accident and incident information to allow the user to navigate around congested areas.

Ford, General Motors, Honda, Daimler, and Toyota are working with the U.S. DOT and local road commissions to develop a common architecture and standards for smart intersections. The effort is known as CAMP VSC2 (Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership Vehicle Safety Two Consortium). “It takes a couple of seconds to establish a cell phone connection, which is okay for alternate routing but can't be tolerated in VII or V2V,” said DENSO's Berg, “so low-latency (<50 ms) will be used to support critical collision avoidance applications.” Berg said DENSO is participating in the CAMP research effort.

CAR's Underwood concurs, “You can do lots of things with a broadband cellular network, but you can't do active safety. Safety applications require very quick identification through a quick exchange of information among unknown participants. It seems best to run hard core safety applications, and also road payment, through DSRC channels, and mobility applications through a 3G cellular network. If we imagine a time in the future when all vehicles have DSRC for electronic tolling, other applications can be added, such as communicating with other cars. If you have it, why not use it?”

Ford's Shulman said CAMP VSC2 has developed and tested a prototype CICAS (Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance Systems) for violations, with sensors, processors, and driver interfaces in test vehicles and roadside sensors and processors to identify hazards and issue warnings to drivers via DSRC communications links. It has tested the CICAS prototype successfully at intersections in Virginia, Michigan, and California.

“We may do a larger field trial,” said Shulman. “(Nationwide) deployment is not imminent, but it won't be terribly long, either.” The target cost of in-vehicle CICAS hardware is low. “You just need a DSRC radio, a GPS receiver, which may be in the vehicle already, and processing, which may also be present. We're also looking at radar and camera technologies, but DSRC and GPS would have a big safety impact because they provide 360° coverage. If smart infrastructure technology gets deployed, we want to be ready. We are already working with other carmakers on standards as well as working with the government on what it takes to deploy vehicle-to-vehicle safety applications.”

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