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Volvo Cars Working on Car-to-Car Communication to Reduce Accidents

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The triumvirate of Volvo Cars, the Swedish Transport Administration, and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration has come together for a project that will see real-time road data uploaded to a cloud-based system in order to help other drivers. With further development, car-to-car communication could appear in future Volvo vehicles and allow drivers to avoid costly accidents during winter months.

Volvo's car-to car communication technology looks to make the roads safer than ever.

Volvo’s car-to car communication technology looks to make the roads safer than ever.

The project allows vehicles to transmit data automatically by registering road friction and determining whether the road beneath it is icy or not. Using mobile networks, the information is transmitted to the Volvo Cars database, where it is distributed to Volvo vehicles. This makes possible an instantaneous warning that lets other drivers in the area know that there is a slippery patch ahead, allowing them to better prepare for what lies ahead and avoid a potential accident.


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Erik Israelsson, Project Leader Cooperative ITS, Volvo Cars, calls the pilot project a practical example of using inter-vehicle communication to benefit drivers and make roadways safer. He added that 50 cars are being used in testing, and that Volvo Cars hopes to make the technology available to drivers within the next few years.

“When the road administrator has access to information from a large number of cars, the data can be used to make winter road maintenance more efficient. The information could help to improve road safety further for all road users. This could also reduce the use of salt when not needed and minimize the environmental impact,” Israelsson said in a statement.

“This is only the beginning. In the future we will have increased exchange of vital information between vehicles. There is considerable potential in this area, including safer traffic, a more comfortable drive and an improved traffic flow.”

Do you think car-to-car communication could be beneficial for drivers if it becomes more widely implemented?


Related: Roads Getting Safer Thanks to Volvo Connected Car Technology