Filed under: Aftermarket, Gadgets, Etc., I.C.E., Safety, Tech
Car-to-car communication of the future
We've all seen a friend driving in the next lane and wanted to just shoot the breeze. We can do that with our cellphones, a sometimes clunky solution and often not entirely wise. Norweigan Designer Lieke Ypma has an idea that aims to streamline the communication process and make it safer, Carhood. Aiming to engender a neighborhood spirit among drivers, as opposed to the kill or be killed gladiator mentality out there today, Carhood enables a wireless LAN connection with a 300 meter range. Rather than fume silently, you and your cohorts can conduct a social round table as you sit in gridlock. If you want to communicate with another Carhood equipped vehicle, you call them using a roof-mounted module. The driver of the other car finishes the connection and away you go, kinda like a more-complicated version of the CB radio. While it appears to be mostly a concept at this point, Carhood was exhibited at Berlin's Designmai festival and the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium is working on getting manufacturers and suppliers to equip vehicles with WLAN technology in the name of enhanced safety. What we really want to know is will Carhood enable you to go berserk on the person who just cut you off? That seems like a much better solution than trading gestures while rocketing down the highway.
[Source: liekeypma.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Darien Allen 2:29PM (11/28/2006)
Oh yeah this'll help prevent road rage alright.
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cars 2:39PM (11/28/2006)
If I don't wrong this solution is already implemented to some trucks.
http://www.auto-power-girl.com/
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Wilhelmina J. Higginbotham 2:41PM (11/28/2006)
Oh, I think thieves will be using this one in short order.
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ClutchCargo 5:03PM (11/28/2006)
Maybe things are different where the designer come from. Here in the USA the ability to talk or should I say yell at someone in another car and have them exchange back with you would be like throwing gasoline on the fire of road rage. Horrible idea. There are other electronic driving aids that would work better.
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Howard Kerr 5:25PM (11/28/2006)
I'm still looking for a mobile version of the cell phone "blockers" now being used in some churches, courthouses, and Broadway-type theatres. That way, when I see some idiot using a cell phone in a way that suggests they are oblivious to all those angry drivers around them...their cell phone could be momentarily or semi-permanently disabled.
This "device" is answering a question no one is asking. At least with C.B. you can often (but not always) tell when the other car or truck has a similar device...in this case a C.B. due to the largish antenna.
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apt34 5:48PM (11/28/2006)
This is good. Now I can show my displeasure well with the shortcomings of other drivers at night when my special American bird cannot be seen clearly.
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MikeW 6:10PM (11/28/2006)
Hey watch out, speed trap ahead!
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GOT 11:44PM (11/28/2006)
"1. Oh yeah this'll help prevent road rage alright."
My thoughts exactly. What a ridiculous idea!
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Richard Warren 8:07AM (11/29/2006)
"You can't fix stupid" Ron White
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Erik Jernberg 9:28AM (11/29/2006)
Add this to the list of inventions I thought of years ago and did nothing about - and someone else actually made happen.
I would imagine that this could be very successful. Distracting, but successful nonetheless.
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asurroca 12:36PM (11/29/2006)
Great idea, bad implementation.
I'm all for wireless ad-hoc P2P communication between cars, but letting their DRIVERS communicate is stupid at best, and dangerous at worst. The idea is, the CAR should be communicating with traffic. That would be brilliant, and I'm confident that it will happen in time.
For example, a distracted driver merges into the right lane without looking. The car's computer senses the lane change and communicates this to the car in the other lane. Receiving this information from the first car, the car in the other lane slows down to avoid it. Voila! Accident avoided because of car-to-car (not driver-to-driver) communication.
The possible applications are numerous, especially if you go one step further and let traffic devices, etc. communicate with traffic. A red light senses that a car isn't slowing down, so it tells the car's computer to slow down to prevent running a red light.
So, yeah, like I said, I'm convinced this is the future, but these folks are obviously not going to be the ones to bring it...
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