Roads and cars talk to one another...
News out of Salt Lake City in Utah shares how vehicles are getting smarter and faster thanks to new technology.
Autonomous vehicles or just smart vehicles mean your car can "keep you in your lane, maintain your speed, tell you if something is in your blind spot, try and help you avoid collisions, and even change lanes for you."
Watch the video below from Fox13Now to find out more
Says Jordan Miller, a reporter for Fox13: "Lisa Miller, the outreach and growth manager at the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), says they're using something called Vehicle to Everything (V2X) Technology" to improve the roads in the state.
How do you feel about your car communicating with things like traffic lights, other cars on the road, and even the road itself?
UDOT says this kind of technology can tell your vehicle about changing road conditions like ice or snow, as well as potholes, construction projects, traffic lights, and crashes, all before they come up so you can prepare for them and even avoid them.
"Connected and autonomous vehicle technology is a key answer to making sure that we can provide safe and mobile roadways throughout Utah and throughout the world," Miller said.
In 2017, UDOT installed Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) to give updates on real-time bus availability. The technology helped increased ridership and increased the timeliness of the buses.
"The DSRC and V2X deployments that we have in Big Cottonwood Canyon is an excellent example of the partnership that we have with ... Panasonic," said Miller. According to UDOT they are finishing up phase one of the projects in Parley's Canyon and Big Cottonwood Canyon, where they've installed 69 DSRC units.
"The behaviour of the tires on the vehicle, the road temperature, whether or not the windshield wipers are on, and there’s actually already a lot of V2X capabilities that are built into our cars today and on all on our roads all throughout Utah and throughout the nation," Miller said.
UDOT says over the last three years, they've spent about $13,7 million on all V2X related deployments in Utah.
"The technology is getting smaller and it’s getting less expensive. It’s tested, proven and it’s deployed already. This is really the time to harness these capabilities and make sure that we have safer and more mobile roadways in Utah," said Miller.