We constantly hear about all of the improvements being made to cars to make them more sustainable, cleaner, lighter, safer and cheaper. Instead of steel, car bodies and parts are being made from duraluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber and other strong yet lighter materials. Companies are doing a lot of research on new fuel sources as well, from corn to water to electricity and more. These changes have been making a big difference in the way we view our vehicles and the way we view the vehicle interaction with our environment.
The changes won’t stop there. As the cars get better and cities and highways become more and more congested we need to find ways to make vehicular travel easier – on both the people and the environment.
Today, many kinds of traffic enhancements have been installed all over the world; for over 20 years WTI has designed and manufactured innovative ITS systems – from camera systems to wireless communication devices. Today’s systems monitor traffic flow, send warnings about unsafe driving conditions or accidents, and they keep traffic moving to lower car exhaust emissions for a cleaner environment.
So, where is the future of ITS going? There are really only two main schools of thought on this right now – the Automated Highway System and the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration.
The Automated Highway System (AHS) or “Smart Road” is an idea to relieve traffic congestion and pollution by utilizing driver-less cars that travel specific routes on roads all controlled by computers. Basically, this idea revolves around specially built cars being moved through cities and over highways using magnetized stainless steel spikes that would be installed in the center of all roads.
Another viable option would be building autonomous intelligent vehicles rather than building and maintaining a specialized infrastructure of that size. The Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) would link smart cars with its surroundings (both on the roads and car to car) in order to increase safety, efficiency and convenience.
These kinds of technologies would make vehicular travel so much easier, faster and safer. Since the computers were doing all of the “driving” for us, reaction time is no longer an issue, space on the highway would be totally regulated which would cut down congestion and result in the need for less lanes on a road due to increased lane efficiency, accidents would be almost unheard of, there would no longer be any problems due to people driving while intoxicated and road-rage would be a thing of the past.
At the moment these technologies are rather limited by a number of obstacles. People may fear their lack of privacy or loss of the right to drive a vehicle themselves, security of the systems could be an issue, protection from vandalism or natural disasters, extensive training and certification would be needed for technicians working on the systems, and the costs to install the system and input all of the data would be huge.
Check out this video clip on WTI’s YouTube from the TV show “Future Car” about the “Auto Matrix” from 2008. It details a lot of really interesting information and very possible future scenarios for vehicular travel. http://www.youtube.com/gotowti#p/a/u/2/wDfaaUvrTZQ
~The WTI Team
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WTI (Wireless Technology, Inc.)
Video Surveillance Products Dedicated to the Broadcast, Global Security and Transportation Markets!
www.gotowti.com ● www.wirelesstech.com
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