The Next Node on the Net: Your Car!
A new radio system developed in Australia is transforming the vehicles on the street into nodes on a network. The technology, designed by scientists at the University of Southern Australia's Institute for Telecommunications Research, is an application called "Dedicated Short Range Communications" (DSRC). Using a combination of GPS and Wi-Fi, cars can communicate their location data to a central office, but it also enables them to communicate with each other.
The system was developed by Cohda Wireless, a company formed by several of university's scientists in 2004. Cohda claims their system "dramatically outperforms all radios available in the world today." They've designed the system to work in harsh radio environments - like cities, for example - where signals can easily be lost among the buildings and tunnels. With Cohda's technology, vehicles can maintain links not just in urban canyons, but also at speeds in excess of 200 mph - although we hope no drivers around us ever put that to the test.
With the DSRC system in place, cars can become nodes on Muni-Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi hotspots, and home Wi-Fi networks. The possibilities are nearly limitless for what that could mean. Dealerships can diagnose vehicles cable-free, cars can receive real-time downloads of maps and traffic conditions, they could communicate wirelessly with toll stations, and the vehicles could even automatically download music from home PCs. (Or maybe iTunes Wi-Fi store? We don't see why not.)
In addition the numerous applications that would make a connected car both useful and fun, there's a public safety element to the system as well. Vehicles could alert their drivers of congestion and accidents, could help drivers safely perform maneuvers like lane changes, could help prevent collisions, and much more. As you traveled, the data about what lies on the road ahead could be relayed from car to car so there is no lag between when the tractor trailer overturned and when you, the driver five miles back, is informed of this. "This technology essentially equips vehicles with the ability to see around corners and predict and avoid dangerous situations," said Professor Alex Grant of the ITR project.
Lest you think the connected vehicle is just a pipe dream that won't be realized until sometime in the distant future, listen to this: Cohda Wireless has already completed over than 700 DSRC trials, for 15 distinct DSRC use-case scenarios, in the U.S., Italy and Australia. These trials covered over 10,000 km during which 100GB of random data was transmitted. The results of the trials proved how Cohda Wireless' technology excelled over other in-vehicle Wi-Fi chipsets. The company is now saying the technology will be in wide release by 2012. That's not too distant at all.
For more information about internet-connected objects, see "5 Companies Building an Internet of Things."
Image credit: The Auto Channel
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How much utility will this bring to the driving experience? I admit some of the stuff is pretty neat, but the last thing I want is my car to crash on me (no pun intended).
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This is a great technology, but there is already a growing body of research and implementation right here in the US called IntelliDrive. The US Department of Transportation has indentified this as a crucial technology for saving lives on our nation's highways. And I agree that there are huge opportunities for commercial development as well.
Check out this link for more: http://www.its.dot.gov/intellidrive/index.htm
There could be some fantastic uses for this. As mentioned in the article, a drive is alerted of a major accident five miles up the highway they are currently driving on. This info is then sent to their GPS unit which determines another route around the accident, but also monitors traffic from other cars taking the same route to avoid congestion on the new route.
I remember reading something very similar to this a long time ago, as a theoretical use case for ubiquitous applications of intelligent Semantic Web agents - that interoperable systems could communicate autonomously, for this example, reporting road conditions and potential hazards (ice, works etc) to vehicles behind the reporting agent - similar to the second diagram.
I would like to have seen a third diagram, where such agents (on board cars) could use the wifi spots almost as reporting 'outposts' - where sensors within the car (traction control, etc) could report an oil spillage for example, post that data to the hub for following cars to receive, act upon and re-evaluate.
While the technology is promising, and realizable, it's critical that security/privacy concerns be addressed as the technology is rolled out. We've already had some cases where RFID information has been readable when it shouldn't be; we need to make sure that communications are secure enough to prevent a rogue driver, or a person on a freeway overpass, to either read the communications, or (more critically) modify the communications.
What about existing 3G cellular networks?
With a SIM card in each vehicule, and a server-sided application or database, you theoretically could provide all the use cases described here, could you not?
I'm not sure I see the specific advantages of this method (appart from connection in tunnels, which could be provided by femtocells)
This info is then sent to their GPS unit which determines another route around the accident, but also monitors traffic from other cars taking
There could be some fantastic uses for this.
Wi-Fi chipsets. The company is now saying the technology will be in wide release by 2012. That's not too distant at all.
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