Automakers Working on Car-to-Car Ad-Hoc Networks

LouCifer writes "The Register is reporting that BMW, Audi, Daimler Chrysler, Volkswagen, Renault and Fiat are working with a German government grant to help develop a standard method for car-to-car wireless networking dubbed 'NOW' (Network On Wheels). NOW is based on 802.11 and IPv6 to allow inter-vehicle communication based on ad-hoc networking to share traffic information. With routing capabilities, the hope is the vehicles will be able to warn each other - and the drivers - about bad weather, accidents and road problems. A prototype is expected by mid-2005 with field trials to start late Q1 2006."

Great.. now my car...

[farsideofthemoon]

can get spam and porn too...

Cost

[Anonymous Coward]

And how many thousands of dollars extra will they charge for it?

look to the future

[cakefool]

Looking past the uses in TFA, one good though far off possibility is to have cars all travelling to the same route "train up" real close to each other - one lead car makes the decisions, cars can peel in and out as their route dictates etc. For long journeys, rotate the front duty, just as you see olympic cycle teams do. The long chain of cars uses less fuel than the same number of independant cars, and behaves only slightly more complex than one car.

Obviously this is in the self drive car realm of probabilities, but hey, we might as well try.

Oh yeah, "imagine an ad hoc network of these" jokes coming soon

Communicating icy roads said to be first

[enoraM]

Most promising impact is said to be achieved by communicating Anti-lock braking system information between cars. Complexity is minimal regarding the information to be processed, as well as how to display warnings:
Put on a warning light and a beep, when roads get icy.

Re:This has been around for years

[lucabrasi999]

It's called CB radio

Ironically, it's about as useful as a CB radio.

Re:It's called CAN

[l4m3z0r]

Linux is *not* user friendly, and until it is linux will stay with >1% marketshare

Whew thats a relief, better keep it the way it is, don't want it to drop to 1%...

Why not infrared instead of radio?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems like infrared would pollute the airwaves less than radio. More line of sight, works in fog, cheaper. Subject to less interference.

with Windows running the network, right?

[ChipMonk]

How long will it be until our cars are catching viruses, worms, and trojans?

And what guarantee do we have that said network will be isolated from the engine systems?

Perhaps I'm being paranoid. But they laughed at me when I said Microsoft's invisible hand was writing SCO's lawsuits. Who's laughing now?

Re:The point is....

[geekoid]

it could tell you about it when you get into your car.
You start the car and it says "I5/405 interchange is blocked, would you like me to map another route?".

or your lost and you could pull over and bring up mapquest.

or it detects that vehcals in front of you(say 30 - 40 cars in front of you) have started decerating at an alarming rate, and it pops of a warning light.

Only your imagination will limit the options...and science.

Re:If I'm understanding this, then...

[LWATCDR]

Actually I hate to say it but I can see some privacy concerns. Some of the benefits could be the networking of cars to provide a great moving mesh allowing Internet access to all the cars. Great for things like sending weather radar to the car, recording traffic congestion on the road, finding the cheapest gas, or hotel, or a restaurant that you would want to stop at. It could also summon help for you if your airbag goes off. Track your car if it is stolen. The downside is it could report speeding and auto ticket you. It is at best a double edged sword. I can tell you that when I was evacuating from Hurricane Frances it would have been real helpful to have some of that data.

this is possible now

[geekoid]

the only thing holding it back is liability.

Uh... hello Officer.

[Cheap Imitation]

Great. Now my own car can rat me out to the Trooper sitting on the overpass. He won't even have to aim the radar gun!

How long until they combine this with the upcoming black box recorders in cars so my car can politely inform the officer that while I'm not speeding right now, I was going 15 over three miles back?

Drat! My car is gonna look really ugly covered in tinfoil.

Re:The point is....

[stratjakt]

You've never dealt with black ice, have you? Maybe you live too south to worry about it.

It being cold has nothing to do with an invisible patch of ice all of a sudden being there, in the middle of a plowed and salted highway, where you wouldn't expect it.

Every "major snowstorm" we have in MD, like last Sundays (hah, as a Canadian migrant I laugh at your candy assed excuse for "winter"), there are invariably these pileups of multiple dozen cars, all driving too fast, too close, not expecting that patch of ice.. So they slam into each other like moving dominoes.

I hope these systems evolve to take the inexperienced American driver out of the equation. There are few of us with actual experience driving in real winter situations. I want the first car to hit the ice to warn the ones behind it. I want the cars behind it to automatically decide that they will not go above, say, 45mph (whatever the inevitable law said) until passed the "danger zone".

They always say you cant legislate common sense. But you can approximate it with a computer, and legislate the use of that computer.

Then we can do away with traditional speed limits, and rely on our smart cars who know how fast it is safe to go, based on the situation - how crowded the road is, weather conditions, lighting...

Hell, operational status of the vehicle should be a metric for such an algorithm. I see so many poorly maintained, downright dangerous piles of rusted shit on the road.

I want my car to be smart enough to stay a minimum of 500 yards from any piece of shit car.

An easier, more practical use, would be tailing someone - following another car (not spy shit, like Jim following Sue through some city he's not familiar with). You could tell your car "Hey, dont let me lose that blue hyundai", or some such.

Re:This could be awesome...

[cayenne8]

"Ability for travellers to self-police. If some guy is driving 60mph+ over the speed limit, likely you could have people report this driver.. Enough complaints and an officer will know where to respond."

Hmm..yup, and help generate more revenue for the cops. Heck, let them earn it themselves...

I see this as the #1 reason to 'hack' the system...or at least opt out of the communication network.

Psshhh. Been there.

[acidrain69]

I had this idea years ago, but it was limited to just wireless internet, not using it to report specific local conditions to the node.

I don't think it will catch on. Why is this any better than just putting some permanent fixtures in certain areas with some long distance optical/radio transmition? How is having 50 cars in a traffic jam going to give you any more information than one permanent camera with some robot vision?

Also, the permanent fixture gives you the option of knowing about things even when your fancy cars aren't around.

Do you really want to let Big Brother into your garage? It's bad enough that insurance companies may start monitoring speed to offer lower rates. I have a great driving record, no accidents, no tickets in quite a while, but I regularly drive 5-10 miles over the limit, more in some places (they have some antiquated speed limits in my city). I hope this fails miserably.

Please.. no WEP!!!

[dustinbarbour]

I think many of the posters here are over-estimating what the capabilities of this network will be.. at least initially. The idea is for vehicles and on-board navigation systems to be better aids to drivers.. not for drivers to talkchat/IM back and forth. I envision something like a cop rolling up on the scene of an accident, firing up his computer and broadcastign that an accident has occured. This message gets shot bak up the road in both directions informing cars of the accident. That's it. It's then left up to the nav system to decide which route one should take. Of course the vehicles will be estimating the congestion and stuff, but that's all minor details. Yes.. there is a the possibility of script kiddies and hackers doing devious things, but that's the nature of the beast. Those implementing this network need to be careful to implement things in a secure manner.. firstly that means using something stronger than WEP (if they fuckin; use WEP, I'll kick some ass!).

Re:Uh... hello Officer.

[Anonymous Coward]

If this comes to pass it may actually be good.

Everyone speeds. Even someone like myself who tries to stay around the speed limit (cause I can't afford a ticket) will sometimes exceed the speed limit by up to 20mph.

The reason cops get away with ticketing people is because they don't ticket that many. MOST people don't get caught.

Now imagine the uproar there would be if everyone in town started getting tickets daily.

People would finally get off their asses and put a stop to what was an annoyance. They will either abolish the speeding ticket, or more likely, they will actually raise the speed limits to a point somehwere above that which most people would consider safe for a particular road.

The speeding ticket would then apply only to those truly driving dangerously.

Track everybody

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Everywher, all the time.

"But that's O.K. I don't have anythig to hide!"

"Mrs. Buttle, we deeeply regret..."

Re:This could be awesome...

[afidel]

Actually 18 wheelers should speed up! It's not speed that kills so much as people driving at different speeds that causes accidents which kill. Ohio's DOT recently saw the light and raised the heavy vehicle speed limit on the turnpike to match that of cars, causing much less congestion and fewer accidents.