Talking Cars

To err is human. To reduce the error is technology.

Statistical survey shows almost 93% of the vehicular accidents occur due to human error like poor traffic management and intersections. In 2017, the USA itself reported 6.5 million car crash accident reports with several casualties and many left injured. Imagine the scenario if cars could talk thousand warn the driver beforehand! Technology is on the soar to employ a cutting-edge trend - Vehicle to Vehicle Communication. This would play a key role in autonomous driving in the upcoming years.

Vehicle to Vehicle Communication is an intelligent transport system that uses computer networks, using roadside elements like traffic signals, vehicles, and other on-road elements as nodes. Expansion in the field is also possible by integrating pedestrians and developing a V2E (Vehicle to Everything) communication system.

Traffic management and eases road congestions, apart from avoiding a clash

Adoption of V2V can lead to the introduction of usage-based insurance policies which would reduce the burden of heavy insurance policies on the common man

Does not rely on third-party cellular networks, but employs an integrated ad-hoc communication system up to 1000m with a 360-degree view to broadcast and receive omnidirectional messages.

It uses a wireless protocol similar to a wi-fi system. It comprises of two main parts-

DSRC (Dedicated Short-Range Communication)

GPS (Global Positioning System)

On receiving the message, the system generates responses to warn the driver about any possible crash. The system generates alerts like forwarding Collision Warning and Lane Changing Warning.

V2V system would prove indispensable for providing a variety of information ranging from vehicle telemetry to path predictability based on ride history. A few of them are going to be discussed below-

Crash Alert - Also known as the Intersection Movement Assist, it warns a driver when it is unsafe to enter an intersection, the system actually detects fast-moving out of sight vehicles in advance and informs the driver about an inbound vehicle in advance, so as a result the driver is prepared well in advance and is able to avoid a potential crash. The information can be transferred to the driver through various ways like through a heads-up display or some kind of vibration in the seat, etc.

Do not pass warning– Warns a car coming from behind when it is unsafe to overtake a car coming from behind if in case a vehicle coming from the adjacent lane is at a very high speed.

Emergency electronic Brake Light application – This notification system notifies the driver in case an out-of-the-sight vehicle ahead in the road is braking aggressively. It is a very important feature especially on the highways where the speed of the vehicles is really high and if one such collision occurs a whole chain of dominos effect gets started which eventually leads to a catastrophe.

Blind-spot monitoring system – Notifies the drivers about the blind spots of the vehicle which is out of the driver’s visibility range. This feature is crucial for heavy-duty goods vehicles, large trucks, and containers which have an extremely long wheelbase.

Business Opportunities

This field is not just restricted to cloud-based V2V communication. There are other areas beyond this to explore like V2I, V2P, V2H, etc. The entire sector of “Talking Cars” is an emerging arena in the automotive industry investors are keeping a close look at.

DOT has issued a mandate that all vehicles should have V2V communication as a standard feature by 2023

V2X market is estimated to have a market estimated to be USD 689 million in 2020, with a projected rise to USD 12859 by 2028

Leading Players in the field include Honda, Hyundai, General Motors, Toyota, Nissan

Start-ups like Kymeta and AutoTalks have successfully raised funds for implementing V2V communication technology using satellite communication. Kymeta has also received the financial backing of Bill Gates

However, there are some loopholes in the system as well-

Over assistance – As self-driving autonomous vehicles gain popularity the driver’s role in controlling the car gets reduced, but under certain conditions, there is no replacement for human intelligence and experience. So, under such circumstances, the system should be designed in such a way that it doesn’t override the human input altogether.

Susceptibility to hacking – With the advent of cloud networking used to communicate between cars there is always a scope of getting hacked and sensitive information getting leaked to the wrong hands as all the information database is a part of a large-scale distributed system.

What are your thoughts about the advent of V2V technology in the automobile industry? Share your thoughts in the comments section!!

Contributed by-

· Hrishiraj Mallick (Reception Chair)

· Samriddhi Ganguly (Publicity Chair)

· Soumyadeep Das (Technical Core)