Ha ha! This was a pleasant surprise to read! Let the high-tech autonomous car revolution begin, right here in Utah!
Cars talking to cars? UDOT about to launch tests to help development
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Imagine if cars could talk to one another or with traffic signals. Such conversations could help avoid collisions caused by fallible humans, or smooth out travel to save fuel costs and cut pollution.
Actually, the Utah Department of Transportation is involved with experiments seeking to develop such systems and perhaps transform driving forever.
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UDOT has three tests going at once. One is to let communicating trucks tailgate each other on the highway at a minimum distance of 30 ft:
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The system allows the rear truck to draft off the one in front. Some early testing demonstrated trucks "can save between 7 and 12 percent of their fuel costs, which also reduces emissions," Leonard says. "That's an enormous thing."
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(Slip-streaming trucks testing in Utah, pic from article)
Test 2 involves UTA:
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Experiments envision that buses automatically would transmit information about their route, schedule and speed. "As it approaches a signalized intersection," Leonard explains, "it would communicate with the signal cabinet."
Software tested by the federal government could analyze if the bus is behind schedule and what else is happening at the intersection to determine if it "can afford to give you a green light earlier to try to get you back on schedule."
Leonard says UDOT hopes to work with UTA "to see if we can get a corridor that's 88 percent reliable to be, maybe, 94 percent reliable."
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The third test involves trucks being able to relay weather and road condition information to UDOT headquarters from rural areas where UDOT does not have weather and ATMS stations. Also cool, but not nearly so important as the other two tests.
Once these tests are successful for trucks and transit, and I have no reason to think they will fail, UDOT will have established a platform for other vehicles to be able to communicate with each other as well. Cars that offer self steering capabilities on the highway (such as Tesla, Audi, and GM, all by next year) would probably be able to use this platform to slipstream as well. (It will be nicer to slip stream behind a Tesla because there is no exhaust!)
This is exciting stuff! We should be proud we have such a forward-thinking Department of Transportation in this state.
Link:
http://www.sltrib.com/news/2413155-1...out?fullpage=1