Communications of the ACM
Ict and Automotive: New App Reduces Motorway Pile-ps By 40 Percent
Photo courtesy of Marco Roccetti
University of Bologna researchers have developed an automatic car accident detection system that could reduce the number of vehicles involved in a crash by up to 40 percent.
"Basically, what we are doing is placing cars in peer-to-peer communication," says Bologna professor Marco Roccetti.
When a car is involved in an accident, it sends out a signal to other cars on the road, which in turn send the signal to cars further down the road. The keys to the system are making the signal transfer as fast as possible and preventing it from overloading with signals. When a car sends an accident alarm signal, all other cars within 1,000 meters receive the signal, but only one of them sends it on to cars farther away. To make the signal move as fast as possible, a car must forward the alert message to another car that can then send the signal as far as possible. Since the cars are in a peer-to-peer network, they all know each other's location, speed, and signal strength.
"The technologies we are using are already mature and available," and it "could be integrated directly into the car dashboard, or in the [satellite navigation system]," says Bologna's Alessandro Amoroso.
From University of Bologna
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