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Big Data: When Cars Can Talk


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An image showing how cars could communicate with each other.

Enabling vehicles to communicate with each other will enhance the capability to predict -- and prevent -- many accidents.

Credit: AutoMotto.com

Intel research scientist Jennifer Healey discussed the possibility of having vehicles communicate with each other in a recent TED Talk. Healey said the technologies already exist to make this a reality, and noted that the benefit would be safer roads.

The idea is to get digital devices, including GPS systems, stereo cameras, short-range radios, and two-dimensional laser range finders common in auto-backup systems, to share data and work together. "In the future, with cars exchanging data with each other, we will be able to see not just three cars ahead, [but also] three cars behind, to the right and left, all at the same time," Healey said.

She also noted that the use of algorithms and predictive models will give connected vehicles the ability to predict future events. "We can predict the accident, and we can predict...which cars are in the best position to move out of the way," Healey said.

However, despite the many benefits of the technology, Healey also acknowledged the privacy concerns. "I think the biggest problem that we face is our own willingness to share our data," she said. "I think it's a very disconcerting notion, this idea that our cars will be watching us, talking about us to other cars."

From InformationWeek
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Abstracts Copyright © 2013 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA


 

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