I was looking at a GM promotional Parade of Progress film from the 1950s and chuckled at a segment where GM predicted "cars
that drive themselves."
It explained a high-tech cruise control would follow a rail signal embedded in the road, allowing the driver to swivel around
and interact with his family as the highway miles ticked away with the car adjusting to traffic and guiding the family safely
to its pre-programmed destination.
Some 60 years later this concept is closer to fruition through technology advancements like GM's OnStar and Volvo's City Safety
automatic braking system that can avoid accidents. These two systems helped form the basis of an initiative that few in the
collision industry have ever heard of – Intellidrive.
Intellidrive is a multipart initiative that aims to enable safe, interoperable networked wireless communications among vehicles,
the city and state road infrastructure. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is heading this program, now being examined
by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA).
DOT started the initiative in the mid-1990s when its Information Technology System (ITS) program focused on adapting emerging
technology like night vision or other defense systems to suit the needs of the automobile and commercial truck transportation
community.
In the early 2000s DOT realized that advancements in computer communications technology like automated communication between
vehicles (Vehicle to Vehicle or V2V) and between vehicles and the roadway (Vehicle to Infrastructure or V2I) held tremendous
potential to address highway safety issues and accident avoidance.
Building from earlier ITS research, DOT launched the Vehicle-Infrastructure-Integration (VII) Program in 2003. VII's vision
was to use wireless communication with and between vehicles to achieve dramatic safety and mobility improvements.
DOT announced Intellidrive in 2010. Some of DOT's relatives like USDOT are sponsoring Intellidrive research to leverage the
potentially transformative capabilities of wireless technology to make surface transportation safer and smarter with each
phase.
As with all new technologies, there is a learning curve. What DOT didn't think of was the explosion in the number of aftermarket
GPS devices that are available today for a few hundred dollars. This advancement drastically reduces the time to market, at
least for phase one.
Phase one will be fairly rudimentary. Like over-the-counter GPS systems, an "I'm here" type of signal will broadcast from
the car and serve as a warning to cross traffic and vehicles in a driver's blind spot, letting them know that another vehicle
is there and warning the vehicles to take evasive action. It can also warn of emergency vehicles.
Like all technology, subsequent phases add some incredible advances. The final vision will link the vehicle's advanced computer
communication and GPS systems to the highway and city infrastructure. This will allow auto braking for stop signs and stop
lights when the vehicle senses a driver is not slowing soon enough. It also will provide automatic turn-by-turn re-routing
to avoid traffic jams and give drivers the optimal time and route to travel to reduce travel time and fuel consumption.
Before you predict the end of collision repair, remember that there is one piece of technology that has not changed: the driver.
Human error is the cause of most accidents today and in large part because drivers ignore warnings.
Many of the warnings supplied by this technology can be ignored, and likely will be. Case in point, remember when the rear
window mounted third brake light was first made mandatory in cars in 1986? Rear-end accident rates declined initially but
then rose steadily to pre-1986 levels as drivers grew accustomed to the warning and began ignoring it. So will computers be
the end of our livelihood? Not if past practices indicate future performance.
Contact info: greg.horn@mitchell.com
