With V2X, you don’t have to put on the red light

In the not-too-distant future, will traffic lights cease to exist?

That is the premise of an intriguing research project launched in England by Ford in 2016, in which the US auto giant was testing its Intersection Priority Management (IPM) vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) system. With this technology, which harnesses V2V, vehicles will communicate with each other when approaching intersections, and if their path is clear they will roll through them. If such technology is developed sufficiently and safely, it will eliminate the need for traffic lights entirely.

We don’t know how far Ford has gotten with its testing, as the company hasn’t publicly divulged the results of its traffic light-killing pilot program. The company did not provide information when requested by this publication. Whether Ford or a rival gets there first, we can be sure these time-wasting totems we all hate will go the way of the Dodo before long. That’s according to Arturo Vargas Mercado, technical and solutions leader for ADAS, autonomy and connectivity at automated diagnostics systems specialist National Instruments.

“We can think of V2V as the ‘mind reading’ ability a car would have over other cars,” he said. “If all of them know the exact position, speed and direction at any given time, they can absolutely synchronize to go through intersections safely by coordinating and adjusting, effectively eliminating the need to a traffic light to provide the stop and go instructions.” Mercado’s comments illustrate an important element of V2V and its companion technology V2X – its vast potential to improve safety and help push the vehicle up the levels of autonomy until it drives and makes decisions for itself.

However, it’s important for anyone involved in the assisted/autonomous driving space to be aware of one crucial factor – the development and establishment of V2V will be separate in many ways from that of in-car autonomous driving systems. “V2V and V2X are complimentary to but not essential for, Level 5 autonomous driving,” said Chris Piche, founder of next-generation camera systems maker Smarter AI.

To read the complete article, visit TU-Automotive.