The BBC reports that a project introduced at Cebit envisions a peer-to-peer network for vehicles that will help alert drivers about road dangers and traffic jams. The network could instantly pass information about oil and ice patches along to other drives.
Dr Anselm Blocher - a researcher at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence who is co-ordinating the project - said the ad hoc communication system could mean that drivers found out about dangers or jams ahead much more quickly than they do now.
For spotting dangers and jams, the system would use data from sensors that were likely to be fitted to cars, bikes and trucks in the future, Dr Blocher added.
For example, cars could spot oil on the road by combining temperature readings with wheel traction information, he said.
A wheel slipping on the road even though the temperature was not low enough for frost or ice would suggest oil or another slippery substance was present.
Once a car detected this sort of danger, information about it would be generated and passed down the line of vehicles approaching the patch of oil.
The article says that a warning light could display on a vehicle's dashboard if a slick spot was sensed by vehicles up ahead. The project is being called SmartWeb. It sounds like it would be very complicated to implement but it could also provide very valuable information for drivers. Right now drivers often can't see a problem up ahead until they notice other vehicles applying their brakes.
