The safety connection
Today’s roads truly are danger zones. Each year, more than 10 million motor-vehicle crashes occur in the U.S.; in 2010, they resulted in 32,885 fatalities, according to NHTSA. That’s the lowest level since 1949, but it’s still an unacceptably high yearly tally that amounts to almost four deaths per hour. And about a fifth of those fatalities occur at intersections.
The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that motor-vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people 5 to 34 years old and that they amount to more than $99 billion a year in medical and lost-work costs because of injuries. Scott Belcher, president of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, a nonprofit trade and academic organization that advocates for advanced transportation technology, says, “If you think about the impact that crashes have on the economy, transportation and mobility, and the environment, [V2X] has the potential to be a game changer.”
Roadway deaths have been reduced, thanks in part to important safety developments such as advanced air bags, well-designed vehicle structure, and electronic stability control. NHTSA says that V2X addresses a wider range of crash scenarios than any of those single technologies.
Each car transmits its data 10 times per second. That allows a car equipped with the technology to create a real-time virtual map of all vehicles in the area, individually monitoring their position, speed, and location, and calculating whether another vehicle could cause a collision with yours. If the system determines a crash is possible, it will alert the driver through real-time audible, visual, and even tactile alerts (a vibration in the seat or steering wheel), depending on the design. V2X can also alert distracted drivers to potential hazards even when they’re looking away from the road.
