ITS World Congress Showcases Safer Auto Travel

During various presentations over the years, I’ve mentioned how precision GPS is going to change the future of automobile transportation and that collisions will eventually be a something of the past. The ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) World Congress, held in Orlando, Florida, October 16-20, gives one a glimpse of the future.

BMW, Toyota, Honda on one side; Garmin and TomTom on the other.

The goal?

Making automobile travel safer and more efficient. The following photos I shot in the BMW booth begin to describe what I mean.

BMW’s Lane Departure Technology

BMW’s Lateral Collision Avoidance Technology

Following is a 30-second Youtube video showing a demonstration of BMW’s lateral collision avoidance technology.

On the in-dash navigation systems, Garmin and TomTom are trying to hold their own by forming relationships with carmakers.

Garmin “in-dash” Connected Nav Unit Suzuki Trip

TomTom “in-dash” Connected Nav Unit Renault

“Connected” is the name of the game and where the research effort is being spent. I don’t mean connected as in internet-connected, but connection between vehicles with a Wi-Fi-like wireless technology called Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DRSC). In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated 75 MHz of spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band specifically for this purpose, intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Europe allocated 30 MHz of spectrum in the same band for ITS.

I attended the connected vehicle demonstration that was conducted at the Walt Disney World Speedway. It was a fantastic demonstration of connected vehicle technology that really demonstrated how much more safe driving is going to be in the future. The situational awareness was amazing. We could “see” when a car was in our blind spot. We got a warning if a car was stopped in the distance in front of us that was ahead of the car directly in front of us. The system would warn you if you try to pass and it detected an oncoming car. At an intersection, it warned us of a car approaching the intersection at a rate of speed where it couldn’t stop. It’s called Intersection Movement Assist (IMA) technology.

I shot several videos during the demonstration. Following is one of a demonstration of the IMA technology.

Another hot topic at ITS that was unrelated to vehicle safety, in a way, was infrastructureless tolling. Where I’m from, we don’t have any road toll booths. My wife is from Chicago. I HATE the toll booths in Chicago. Orlando and Houston, two other places I traveled during this trip, also have road tolls. Let me be clear, I’m not against user fees for roads. I think users should pay to use roads. However, toll booths are a hazard and a waste of money because of their high overhead. There are many infrastructure-less tolling systems in use today, especially in Europe. During the conference, TransCore introduced a small device that you plug into the OBD port on your car (the “check engine” plug underneath your dashboard). This device supports automatic tolling based on GPS/GNSS technology. It has lower infrastructure costs than even SunPass or iPass or whatever radio device you buy for the system you use. Since it uses GPS/GNSS technology, it doesn’t need an RF-ID reader on the tollway. It needs nothing that you would see on the road unless the transportation department wanted to post signage to make you aware. Cool stuff.

More later on this exciting topic…