Avoid a Crash with Wi-Fi and Circuits

As the Cadillac CTS I’m sitting in charges across an expanse of black asphalt directly toward a parked car, time stretches out and prompts a mind-sharpening moment. A crash seems inevitable. All of a sudden, the brakes take hold by themselves, and I feel the seat belt draw snug against my chest as we are hauled to a stop, just twenty feet away — close enough to keep the heart racing.

In a Secaucus, N.J. parking lot, I’m participating in a demonstration of Vehicle to Vehicle, or V2V, an advanced safety system under development by GM, designed to give a car a “sixth sense” awareness of the placement and velocity of the cars around it. The system is intended to send a warning to the driver of a car so they may avoid an impending collision, or, in the worst cases, help to stop the car, as happened in the demonstration.

While my heart recovers, Donald Grimm, a GM researcher also seated in the car, shows far less consternation — and tells us the prototype V2V version we’re testing out offers just a glimpse of an advanced system the company hopes to offer on future models.

Electronic smarts to help the driver avoid crashes are beginning to show up on the high-end auto market, such as Volvo’s City Safety rear-end collision avoidance system, and Mercedes Benz’s Distronic cruise control, a “smart” cruise system which can slow a car when it approaches a slower-moving vehicle.

High-tech safety systems like the above have thus far been relegated to luxury models. Volvo’s and Mercedes-Benz’s systems are radar-based, which are limited to work only in line of sight, like most TV remote controls. The cost of these systems has been prohibitive to inclusion in lower-end models. “Radar-based systems will remain two orders of magnitude above our system,” says Patrick Popp, a director of body and safety electronics for GM product development. Only with its car-to-car approach, GM argues, can smart safety electronics be made available economically enough so that all cars can have them, not just luxury models. GM says a V2V system will likely cost a few hundred dollars per car, and consists of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, a microprocessor and a wireless LAN module similar to the wireless card in a notebook computer.

GM says the V2V system will glean information from other cars which have OnStar, its GPS based information system now on 4 million cars, and Stabilitrak, its traction control system, both of which will be offered across its entire model line by 2009. “Our V2V technology capitalizes on these existing technologies,” said Alan Taub, executive director of GM’s Research and Development Science Labs. “As a result, our customers can benefit from safety features at a fraction of the cost of similar systems.”

When a collision is imminent, the V2V system warns a driver on a small screen to the right of the speedometer and odometer, with lights on the side mirrors, and by vibrating the driver’s seat. Grimm demonstrated a lane change warning and blind zone advisor feature, and the forward collision avoidance with auto-brake that provided the excitement for my Cadillac drive. Audi and Infiniti are among the luxury manufacturers that already use blind-spot warning systems on their vehicles.

When in danger of a collision, the silhouette of a vehicle tinted green, yellow or red appears on a dashboard screen. Icons in the side mirror indicate the presence of traffic. If another car is in your way, the right side of the seat rumbles, providing a vibratory or “haptic” signal. Such signals are one of the key elements of the V2V system. “With so many chimes in the cockpit with different warnings, we are looking at other ways to inform the driver,” Grimm says.

While current radar-based systems provide only “fans” of awareness — limited by line of sight — V2V could, in theory, offer 360-degree coverage and obtain information about cars up to a quarter mile away. “How helpful would it be to know in a long back up of vehicles that the guy five cars ahead is braking?” Popp asks.

But what happens if the car in your blind spot is not one with V2V or an OnStar system? Nothing, yet. But GM hopes to work with other manufacturers and to join in efforts by industry organizations such as the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) to eventually create a universal system.

V2V can offer varying degrees of intervention as it matures. In the most hazardous situations, V2V takes over from a negligent driver, as it did when applying the brakes during my test run. In that case, my vehicle reacted to what Popp calls “clear and present danger” — a phrase popularized by author Tom Clancy, and one I would have used, had I been sufficiently self-possessed, in that speeding Cadillac.