Vehicle Safety Experiment Comes to Michigan

(ANN ARBOR, Mich.) -- Will traffic be safer and smoother if vehicles can “talk” to each other? That’s the question the Department of Transportation hopes to answer, starting this summer, with an ambitious year-long experiment in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In August, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to have 2,800 cars, trucks, and buses on the streets of Ann Arbor, augmented with technologies that will alert drivers to road hazards such as sudden stops and vehicles in their blind spots. Partnering with the University of Michigan, DOT distributed the equipment to volunteer residents of the city and some public transportation vehicles.

Speaking at a transportation industry conference today, NHTSA administrator David Strickland said government-run clinics with drivers showed overwhelming support for the technology among those who tried it out.

“The reason why we are so excited about this is, is that this technology, when fully deployed, can address up to 80 percent of crash scenarios involving not-impaired drivers,” he said.

The concept isn’t new. Americans have had access to systems dealing with many of the same issues in some consumer vehicles for years. But where the NHTSA experiment differs is in its implementation and sheer scale.

For example, many cars use proximity sensors to alert motorists to nearby hazards. But in this case the augmented vehicles will use a combination of traditional GPS and a wireless broadcasting method functionally similar to Wi-Fi. The DOT calls the concept “Connected Vehicle Technology.” The system will allow cars to communicate directly with each other, alerting drivers to potential dangers.

The benefit of the electronics, administration officials said, is it circumvents some handicaps in current technologies and can also provide warnings to drivers earlier than ever.

Administration officials say the Ann Arbor experiment is estimated to cost $15 million, with funding split between the federal government and state of Michigan. They hope it will also find uses in maritime and railway applications.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio