Vehicle-to-vehicle communication could one day eliminate the need for traffic lights.
Ford has imagined a future where negotiating busy intersections no longer requires the need for any driver to wait at a red light. Instead, connected cars could communicate with one another and make their way through the intersection without crashing into vehicles going the other way.
The technology, known as Intersection Priority Management (IPM), was recently demonstrated in the U.K. IPM uses vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications to coordinate with other vehicles in the vicinity and suggests optimum speeds that will allow cars to safely pass by each other at intersections without coming to a stop.
“We know that intersections and traffic lights can be a real bugbear for many drivers,” said Christian Ress, supervisor, Driver Assist Technologies, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering. “With the connected car technology we have been demonstrating this week, we envisage a world where vehicles are more aware of each other and their environment, enabling intelligent cooperation and collaboration on the roads – and around junctions.”