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.