Saving drivers from themselves
Intelligent Transportation System
(ITS) is the term used for vehicles that communicate not only with each but with the roads, as well, all in order to
keep the vehicle’s driver and passengers as safe as possible. Well-known examples include traction and stability
controls and lane departure systems. More experimental devices
include General Motor’s V2V technology. These are the tip of the iceberg, though. At the annual ITS World Congress held at San Francisco this year, new technologies for driver and passenger safety were introduced and discussed including:
- Vehicles that communicate with traffic signals and radar devices.
- Sensors that display the color of the traffic signal at the next intersection.
- Buses that steer themselves on a magnetic track embedded in the road.
- Devices that “read” traffic speeds and evaluate when it’s safe to make turns.
While we at Autoblog are as much for safety as the next person, this article ended on an interesting note:
We've tried education, belts and bags, ABS and stability control. The next step is using technology to save drivers from themselves.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hank 9:56PM (1/01/2006)
We've tried education, belts and bags, ABS and stability control. The next step is using technology to save drivers from themselves.
Next they'll feed us in adult-sized highchairs and bibs...then they might as well wipe for us, too.
Puhleeze.
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Jay 1:21AM (1/02/2006)
>We've tried education, belts and bags, ABS and stability
>control. The next step is using technology to save
>drivers from themselves.
Really? Education? They tried that? You mean with those ridiculously easy exams that you take once and pretty much never again? The tests that showed a silhouetted picture of an octagonal sign and asked what it meant?
The thing is, driver education in the USA is a joke. There are few programs that teach everything you need to know to be a responsible driver...the things beyond knowing what a yellow light means...and the testing standards the government offices have are way too lax. And anyone who wants quality defensive driving training usually has to shell out between $1000 and $3000 to get it. The powers that be haven't done NEARLY enough in terms of education, and if they did, we wouldn't need these stupid devices. We need that a lot more than sensors that display the color of the traffic signal at the next intersection. I have sensors like that. THEY'RE CALLED MY @#$#%#@#$ EYES! If some people would put down their damn cheeseburgers and cell phones for a few blocks, we wouldn't NEED stupid nanny devices like that.
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