Vehicle To Vehicle Communication

By now we know that big brother is watching. You can't go in a department store, gas station or supermarket without being photographed by a camera. The new smart phones with GPS also track your every move. There are positives to this technology, but also negatives. The latest technology is vehicle to vehicle communication, which Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says is just the beginning of a revolution in roadway safety. However, it could take years to show up in cars.

Cars of the future will speak to each other. They will know when you're about to get hit, and will react accordingly. Cars would speak in short-range radio signals, trading messages that would prevent accidents on a broad scale, perhaps decreasing accidents by as much as 80%. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will issue standards and rules for installing such systems before the end of the Obama administration, but it will be up to automakers to build the communications systems, GPS sensors and software into vehicles.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems would give cars the ability to warn drivers of dangers as far as 300 yards away. The main advantage of this technology is that it always pays attention to what's going on around, unlike drivers. The safety benefits will clearly outweigh concerns about cost.

One of the issues holding back this technology is the issue of privacy. Tracking a person's whereabouts 24/7 would be easy. Sure, there would be huge benefits to safety and the saving of lives, but the cost of this in protecting individual privacy is huge. This is an issue that will be hashed out by auto executives, transportation executives and probably by the media. In the end I don't know that we'll really have a say in whether we want it or not. I don't remember anyone asking me if I wanted my phone to be able to track me, or if I wanted to be photographed by the department store, gas station or just walking down the street corner. These are all invasions of privacy, yet we are not asked or informed about this intrusion. Overall, if I understand the technology correctly, the positive benefits seem to outweigh the negative. It's just another intrusion into our everyday life. George Orwell was right so many years ago, but I don't think even he imagined the extent to which big brother would be watching.