IntelligentVehicles
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NXP and Cohda teach cars to communicate with 802.11p, hopes to commercialize tech by 2014
Ford promised to give our cars X-ray vision, and this little blue box might be the key -- it's apparently the first standardized hardware platform for peer-to-peer automobile communications. Called C2X (for "car-to-x"), the module inside is the product of Cohda Wireless and near-field communications gurus at NXP, and it uses 802.11p WiFi to let equipped cars see one another around blind corners, through other vehicles, or even chat with traffic signals up to a mile away. Pocket-lint got a look at the technology during Automotive Week, and got a good idea of when we can expect the tech; NXP says it should begin rolling out in 2014, and hopes to have 10 percent of the cars on the road gleefully gabbing by 2020.
Ford's intelligent vehicles communicate wirelessly, shoot hula hoops out of tailpipes (video)
Imagine how many accidents could be avoided if we all had perfect X-Ray vision -- assuming, of course, that everyone could refrain from being distracted by all the naked pedestrians. Drivers would never be surprised by rapidly slowing traffic, cars broken down around blind curves, or autos zooming into blind spots. No matter how many ads we respond to in the back of Mad Magazine we'll never have that, but Ford has an alternative with its Intelligent Vehicle Research: cars that simply rely on GPS and a wireless data connection to beam their location and speed to each other. Autos alert their drivers when a car at the front of a convoy is rapidly decelerating or when there's a broken down rig right around the next bend. Interestingly the tech is using WiFi, not cellular data, so range is somewhat limited, but still far enough to warn drivers with blinking lights or trigger an automatic-braking system. It's all demonstrated in the video after the break and, while there are no crazy platooning stunts like Volvo recently showed off, we have to figure that's coming in version 2.0.
