Ford fine-tunes V2V technology

In the not too distant future, everyday cars will talk to each other constantly. At least that's what Ford is banking on.

The US-based car-maker aims to be a technology leader in the field of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems, demonstrating its Wi-Fi-based collision avoidance system in Taiwain this week at one of the world's largest technology expos, Computex.

It's Ford's vision that our cars will be busily chatting away in the name of safety, in order to inform each other of impending risks, such as vehicles hidden by obstacles at an intersection or fast moving cars and other potential dangers.

Simply put, Ford says that cars equipped with V2V technology will be safer than those without.

Or as Ford couches it, "This system allows cars to detect and possibly alert drivers to potentially dangerous situations they may not be able to see yet".

At Computex in Taipei, a pair of Kugas equipped with Ford's embryonic V2V technology were let loose in a downtown car park to demonstrate how the systems are better than current sensory technology, such as radar-based cruise control or proximity-based blind spot sensors.

Ford says V2V allows cars to send each other real-time information, so a fast moving vehicle for instance could be identified in advance, informing the driver the speeding vehicle will be in his/her blind spot ahead of time. V2V systems can be extended to communicate not only with other cars, but also infrastructure, improving navigation data with real time updates on traffic snarls or incidents for example.

The idea of V2V systems is not new, as several car makers have been developing the technology, companies such as Volvo and General Motors.

Real-world tests of the V2V technology have been conducted for several years now and although Ford has not put a timeline on the commercial launch of the forward-looking technology, it says it is in talks with other global car makers and public authorities to harmonise standards to fast-track the wide-spread adoption of the technology.

In essence, the more vehicles equipped with V2V tech take to the roads, the more effective and informative the systems become, and in the USA the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says V2V technology could reduce the severity of up to 80 per cent of all accidents involving sober drivers.

"Ford is playing a leading role in developing this type of vehicle communications technology, entering into major research partnerships with government, universities and industry groups in the US and Europe," said Trevor Worthington, vice president for product development at Ford Asia Pacific.

No tests of the developmental technology are scheduled to take place in Australia any time soon, and Ford says the technology is still "a long way away" from being offered in new cars.