Cars, trucks and roads will get a new language

Date: Saturday, 28. August 2010

In the telematics world the acronym CVIS stands for Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems. For drivers of the future it represents a science fiction-like world in the making. A world in which cars will exchange information about speed, direction, and more, with other cars and even with roadway infrastructure such as traffic lights, bridges, curves, road signage.

At a London, UK conference on intelligent highway systems a few years ago, CVIS was touted as "the next big challenge in automotive electronics." If, or when, the project comes to fruition the projected benefits are enormous. They include everything from increased road network capacity to lower vehicle costs and more efficient logistics for trucking companies.

CVIS activities have been started in Europe, Japan and the United States. Currently they are advancing of a broad front, ranging from a common language for all the elements of the system to communicate to research into antennas, road surface sensors and "cooperative communications between vehicles.

"Cooperative systems", says the official CVIS web site, "can break the 'vicious circle' of ever-worsening traffic problems by offering for the first time new ways for drivers and their vehicles to interact (and not just react) with a more intelligent infrastructure."