Someday, your auto and the roadway will be in constant communication and able to suggest route changes to avoid accidents, construction, and congestion; coordinate your vehicle with signal lights, other vehicles, and lane markers; and let you know where you can park. Right now, a fleet of instrumented vehicles is testing these systems on two instrumented test beds in Virginia.
Robust vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, and vehicle-to-device communication will enable applications addressing the U.S. Department of Transportation’s strategic goals of safety, state of good repair, economic competitiveness, livable communities, and environmental sustainability.
"The test beds provide a variety of roadway types, topography, and driver types that allow us to exercise connected-vehicle systems across a range of environments under controlled conditions, so that a high number of equipped vehicle interactions will occur," said Andrew Farkas, professor and director of the National Transportation Center.
The 55 roadside units report road hazards, optimize de-icing operations, warn of congestion and emergency vehicles, and monitor pavement condition. The instrumented vehicles, which include 10 cars, a semi-truck, and a bus, have forward-collision, road-departure, blind-spot, lane-change, and curve-speed warning systems, and advanced geographic information systems.
Test bed development and vehicle instrumentation will be finalized by the end of the year. Future research projects include optimized routing, road hazard reporting, optimized de-icing, beacon for at-risk pedestrians, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication to enhance rear signaling.
