The largest vehicle-to-vehicle communication network begins its trials

For now, drivers can communicate with their vehicles through means such as voice or touch commands. Industry researchers are also working on more advanced mechanisms, including the perception of emotional states. However, the next step will not focus on this type of communication but on the one that the cars will have among themselves. Daimler AG has announced the start of trials of the most important network of this kind to date, called “C2X” technology.

The German automotive group compares it to Internet social networks in terms of how it works. The experiment will involve 120 vehicles that, as they travel through the German region crossed by the Rhine, will communicate with each other to share data about traffic. To do so, they will also be connected to the central system in Germany that controls this information.

The idea is that each car would do something like post an update on its fictitious “wall” commenting on the state of traffic, so that the rest of its “friends” would find out about it. Daimler points out that the usefulness of this vehicle-to-vehicle communication regarding traffic lies above all in those situations that are somewhat more dangerous and that drivers cannot see with the naked eye.

For example, when the end of a long traffic jam is located behind a hill, or when another vehicle suddenly brakes hard in front of a truck or a bus. Another possible function would be to detect when a car frees up a parking space, for which the system suggests the fastest route. C2X communication trials will be carried out from now until the end of the year, although there are other similar ones, in which Daimler also takes part, being conducted in Palo Alto, California.

Source | Daimler