Smartphone could prevent a traffic crash

You’re driving down the road, approaching an intersection and suddenly, your smartphone lights up and sounds an alarm. In an instant, another driver blows through a red light right across your path. You might have been killed.

That type of warning system is being tested today.

More than 20 percent of traffic fatalities in the U.S. happen at intersections. Millions of crashes, thousands of death. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one among many universities and government agencies working on collision avoidance technology.

Emmanouil Koukoumidis is a former researcher at MIT, now working on traffic technology at Microsoft. He says crash avoidance technology takes a couple of forms. One is a system that alerts drivers to changing traffic signals so they can slow down.

“The idea is that if you can tell the driver when the signal is going to turn green, you can help him optimize his speed. At the same time, if you see that he’s about to cross [run] a red light and potentially get into an accident, you can issue a warning,” said Koukoumidis.

That technology could help eliminate what some traffic analysts call the “yellow light dilemma zone.” It’s that split second as you approach the intersection when it’s too late to drive through before the light goes red and too dangerous to slam on the brakes, possibly causing a rear end crash.

Another intriguing strategy involves equipping vehicles with global positioning or some other locating technology. Cars would broadcast their speed and location to other cars. It’s called vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

For this to work, Koukoumidis says all cars would have to have an antennae to receive the other vehicle’s broadcast and get a warning.

“So even if at an intersection there are blind spots because of buildings or parked vehicles. Still, as you are approaching an intersection, if your car is broadcasting your trajectory, then other cars can intercept that and realize that a crash is about to happen and issue a warning to the driver.”

Researchers recognize a couple of drawbacks or concerns about crash avoidance technology. One, the system can provide false warnings, which can annoy drivers who might tend to avoid all warnings or turn the system off. Likewise, if the technology works too well, drivers might become over-reliant and abandon common sense and defensive driving skills.

The federal government just launched a one-year pilot program, equipping 3,000 cars, trucks and buses with connected wi-fi technology so they can transmit data messages which can be translated into a warning. The expectation is that vehicle-to-vehicle technology can help drivers reduce damage or injury in four out of five crashes that don’t involve alcohol, or avoid the collisions altogether.