What is the Safety Pilot Model Deployment?
A peek into the future of transportation!
In the future, your car will talk to other cars, to traffic lights, and to other roadside devices. And… the roadway will talk back, too!
Your Connected Vehicle will find out about such things as traffic tie-ups, icy roads, disabled vehicles, and lane closures. And you’ll hear about them when you need to know about them.
What is a Connected Vehicle?
Connected vehicles rely on dedicated short-range wireless communications, similar to wi-fi, allowing cars to communicate with each other. In combination with an on-board safety application that interprets this information, you can be warned about potential collisions ahead of time, so you can get out of the way!
What is the benefit of these talking vehicles on the roads?
Vehicle crashes claim the lives of more than 32,000 Americans each year. It is the leading cause of death for young Americans between 4 and 35 years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that Connected Vehicle systems may help to significantly reduce these numbers, but not without a bit more research.
What is the Safety Pilot Model Deployment?
The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and Ann Arbor will host a scaled-down version of a future in which all vehicles will be connected. The model deployment will find out how well connected vehicle safety technologies and systems work in a real-life environment-with real drivers and vehicles. It will test performance, usability, and collect data to better understand the safety benefit of a larger scale deployment.
To do this, UMTRI needs many, many volunteers! Sign up now! (Details are under Get Involved.)
Research Goals
The research requires the installation of wireless devices in vehicles so that we can:
- Test connected vehicle operations in real-world conditions
- Understand how regular drivers use connected vehicle technologies
- Determine the safety benefits of a connected vehicle