IBM researchers are looking into active safety and driver assist technologies in which vehicles exchange information with each other and with the road infrastructure, take corrective action where appropriate, and provide essential feedback to the drivers to help avoid dangerous situations.
Building on and connecting pre-existing design elements (anti-lock brakes, cruise control, automatic transmission, etc.), the advanced driver assist technologies under development will allow the automobile to receive, and react to, information from the environment.
"With half a billion cars on the road in the western world alone, there's a great opportunity to better regulate traffic flow and reduce congestion," said Dan Chevion, initiator of the exploratory research project at the IBM Haifa Research Lab. With the annual cost of car accidents in the U.S. estimated at $230 billion (health care non-inclusive), IBM can likely drive business value for automakers as well as mitigate the societal health care burden, and possibly even make your rush hour a smoother, faster ride.
Interested in information related to this topic? Subscribe to our twice-monthly Information Technology eNewsletter.
