Press Coverage
June 24, 2003
Smart cars, smart
roads can help out dumb drivers
by Leslie Miller
Associated
Press
McLEAN, Va. (AP)—A car speeds toward an intersection,
about to collide with a van. Sensors spot the car about to
run
the red light, and a signal rushes to the car, triggering
a high-pitched beep and a red light on the dashboard that
says, emphatically, "STOP".
This is the smart intersection
of the future, and federal highway officials believe it will
prevent thousands of traffic
accidents every year.
Test drivers used the nation's first
prototype of the system on Tuesday to show what happens when
a smart car meets a
smart intersection.
Much testing remains to be done and drivers
probably won't start seeing them for another five years,
say highway officials.
The newly paved intersection at the
Federal Highway Administration's Highway Research Center
includes traffic signals, an advanced
traffic controller system and two roads from nowhere converging
in the middle of the agency's office campus in this Washington
suburb.
"It's not a `You can stop worrying, the
car will drive itself'," said
Jeffrey Paniati, associate administrator for Federal Highway. "It's
a 'We'll help you drive'."
The technology isn't all
that new, say highway officials. Already on the road are
smart cars and trucks that alert
somnolent drivers, call for help in an accident and even
take over some of the driving.
What is new is behavioral
research into how people interact with traffic signs and
warning systems in their cars.
Engineers are experimenting with bells, speech-related devices
and systems that make a car shake as if it's driving over
a rumble strip, Paniati said.
An elderly driver in a Lincoln
Continental on a country road might respond to different
stimuli than an 18-year-old in
a Camaro on prom night. "We're looking at all the options
to find out when to give warnings and who responds to what," Paniati
said.
Engineers, for example, are studying the ideal
pulse rate for a flashing "No left turn" sign to
activate neurons in a driver's brain, according to James
Misener,
an engineer with the University of California at Berkeley.
Here's how the sign works at the test intersection:
As Driver A begins to make a left turn, Driver B starts to
go straight through the intersection from the left. Their
movement is transmitted through sensors in the pavement to
an advanced traffic controller, which figures out that Driver
A shouldn't be making that left turn yet and activates the
eye-level street sign.
Transportation officials say smart
vehicles, combined with smart intersections, could significantly
reduce traffic accidents.
"
When the two systems start talking to each other, we can
exponentially save lives," said Mary Peters, Federal
Highway administrator.
Driver error is the leading cause
of the 6 million crashes in the United States every year.
About 4.5 million of those
fall into three categories: 30 percent are rear-end collisions,
20 percent are run-off-the-road crashes and about 25 percent
happen at intersections.
The Bush administration wants to
spend $1.7 billion over the next six years on intelligent
transportation systems,
20 percent more than the past six.
The aim is to get the
new technologies into the marketplace and lower their cost
so everyone can use them, Peters said.
Mercedes Benz already
sells passenger cars with rear-end collision avoidance systems,
which take partial control of
the vehicle to maintain a safe distance using radar, sensors
and a global positioning system map. Commercial trucks have
the systems, known as "adaptive cruise control," and
General Motors is expected to sell the systems on some of
next year's luxury models.
"If it's starting in the Cadillac, that's
fine," Peters
said. "Like digital watches and calculators, the cost
will come down."
Roadway departure systems, which warn
sleepy drivers they're about to go off the road, are also
expected to be sold on
cars soon.
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