While perusing my latest copy of American Motorcyclist magazine, I was pleased to see an article on how vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication might make roads safer for motorcyclists. V2V is where vehicles have their own dedicated micro-controller and wireless chip and security chip. Atmel makes all three, both as separate parts and combined into one. The vehicles will have a wireless RF “bubble” that travels with them. When two vehicle’s bubbles “touch”, then they will authenticate it is not some hacker on a bridge embankment. Then the vehicles can exchange information. It is anticipated that the system will have GPS, so each vehicle will know its exact position.
While drunk driving fatalities have plummeted, distracted driving is killing twice as many people.
As a guy with a broken collarbone that got hit from behind while my motorcycle was stopped for a red light, I think this is great. If vehicles can communicate they can warn each other of impending collisions. Auto manufacturers anticipate verbal and “shaker” warning for the cars, or so-called “cages” as we motorcyclists call them.
The AMA publishes the magazine and I am a proud supporter. One thing I disagree with is that the AMA wants motorcycles to be nearly silent. Now I hate open pipes, that is a moron thing to do since you can’t tune the motor because of the reversion pulses coming off the end of pipes. But silent bikes are too far in the other direction. With half the driver’s noses stuck in a smartphone while they drive, a little noise alerts them to my presence.
This V2V technology may make all this moot. I won’t need loud pipes if vehicles actively work to avoid collisions. I touched on this in an earlier blog post—Car-to-car communication.
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