IntelliDrive program blends technology, safety

Dan Carney • E-mail

Some of the early benefits of the technology that will enable self-steering cars one day will first contribute to improved safety and better information about traffic and weather conditions.

That's because of the federal Department of Transportation’s IntelliDrive program, a five-year effort launched over the summer. It aims to bring together government, industry, academia and other interested parties to specify, develop and produce the necessary technology.

At the very heart of IntelliDrive is a plan to put wireless communications similar to Wi-Fi on every new car, which that car will use to broadcast its “heartbeat” continuously.

This information will include basic facts such as speed, location and direction. Alert to black-helicopter types: the government promises that the data coming from each car will be anonymous so it can’t be used to track individuals’ movements.

That heartbeat information, when examined for all the cars in an area, will instantly reveal where traffic jams exist, as all the cars near the blockage will show very low velocity. Such information will be real time and accurate, unlike some of today’s sources of traffic information, which rely on observations that can be off in that way. 

Windshield wiper as sensor
It can also include additional information such as whether cars’ headlights and windshield wipers are on, which would indicate the exact location of where rain or snow are falling.

“Who would have ever thought of a windshield wiper as a sensor?” asked Rod MacKenzie, vice president and chief technical officer of ITS America, an intelligent transportation advocacy group. “Now it is.”

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Likewise, a broadcast indicating that cars’ antilock brake systems or electronic stability control systems are active would further warn drivers exactly where very slippery conditions exist.

The ability to share this kind of critical information should help reduce both traffic delays and the number of crashes, said Tim Schmidt, chief technical officer for the Department of Transportation.

The U.S. economy suffers a drain of $78 billion annually because of traffic congestion, he said, with the loss of 4.2 billion hours of drivers’ time and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel.

“Just cutting that in half would be huge,” he said.

As the technology advances and cars are able to assist drivers even more, by knowing, for example, that some cars are stopped just out of sight ahead, fatalities can be prevented, he added.

“Cars cannot prevent all the accidents and deaths that occur, but this should put a big dent in it,” said Schmidt.

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