BMW researcher Timo Kosch is convinced that motorists will soon be protected from nasty surprises on the road such as a sand storm or a broken down vehicle blocking a crossing two kilometres away.

“Before the driver has even seen the obstacle his car will already have warned him,” Mr Kosch says.
Such functions are possible because of data transfer between vehicles in a car-to-car communication system that several car makers are working on.
Already some vehicles can pick up information and pass it to the driver with assistance systems such as radar sensors and infra-red night view camera systems.
The advantage with the car-to-car communication system is that such useful information is passed onto other cars following the same route.
According to experts at General Motors the system has numerous advantages. GM researcher Hans-Georg Frischkorn, for instance, argues that an electronic network can be put to use in cases where a driver has overseen another car while overtaking or where another car is on a collision course at an intersection.
Technically the researchers are using tried and tested technology from the vehicle components and computer industry. A GPS system supplies position data, the light and rain sensors of the onboard computer monitor the weather. Signals from the ESP (Electronic Stability Programme) provide data of the road conditions.
For the transmission of the data, the experts are working with W- LAN networks similar to those used by laptop users for wireless Internet communication.
“The technology is basically the same,” says BMW expert Mr Kosch “with the difference that our system has to function within milliseconds and be secure against hackers”.
Mercedes-Benz puts the range of the car-to-car communication system at about 500 metres.
“If greater distances have to be overcome the system works much like a relay stick with the information passed from vehicle to vehicle,” according to a Mercedes spokesman.
However, the technology not only enables communication with other cars but also with road infra-structure such as traffic management control centres.
Volkswagen’s Bernd Rech says the system could be linked to traffic lights which would pass a signal onto waiting cars when it is safe to drive on. At night, a red traffic light could provide a signal to an oncoming car that it is still safe to drive through because there is no other traffic.
Currently several car makers have formed consortiums to overcome the last technical obstacles such as finding common standards and negotiating radio frequencies.
But first and foremost the system can only work, if there are enough cars on the road that use it.
“The technology only makes sense if there are enough vehicles gathering and utilising information and then passing it onto other cars,” added Kosch.

Thomas Geiger