Car-to-car conversations take care of safety

Cars will soon be able to 'talk' to each other and give their drivers up to 15 seconds warning of impending danger on the road, says QUT PhD researcher.

Sebastien Demmel from QUT's CARRS-Q (Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety) has tested augmented perception, whereby one vehicle can 'share' information with others on the road, using QUT's $1.2 million driving simulator.

"My research with five cars in simulation shows that a simple cooperative augmented perception system using GPS and WiFi can give drivers up to three times more advanced warning time that something is going to happen ahead, compared to a non-cooperative warning system," Mr Demmel said.

"Each vehicle is equipped with a program that builds a map and charts where other vehicles are on the road. The cars send out information about their location, speed and drive direction that is picked up by other vehicles.

"Vehicles alert the driver when they detect another vehicle doing something dangerous such as braking or swerving. Such cooperation can really improve the performance of many safety systems."

Mr Demmel said augmented perception systems could also be advanced by fitting sensors to detect, for example, a pedestrian and brake automatically.

"Or they could be made sophisticated enough to offer the driver a specific manoeuvre, rather like a co-pilot."

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Media contact: Niki Widdowson, 07 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au