Cars are always going through some type of alteration. The alterations made can be to make the cars go faster, be safer; seat more people, more eco-friendly, etc. But recently, cars have been altered so that it can use today’s technology like the internet. These group of cars are being identified as smart cars. Smart cars are capable of having their own Wi-Fi, which will allow it to communicate with other electronic devices. The next step for smart cars is to use its technology with the technology of smart roads. Smart roads are roadways that have been implemented with technology similar to smart cars. Smart roads are a fairly new concept that is being developed and researched, but there are some smart roads that currently …show more content…
The smart road will be able to give the smart car all the information pertaining to the road via Wi-Fi. The smart road will be able to tell the smart car the weather conditions of the road. The smart road will have sensors built into it that will be able to sense the temperature of the road and figure out if anything is on it that shouldn’t be based on the temperature it emits. There already exists a smart road in Virginia that has “sensors in the road that is able to detect things like temperature, weight, and moisture”(Virginia Smart Road). The Virginia smart road can detect black ice, which is very dangerous, through its sensors. The driver will be able to use the information that the smart road provides the smart car and use it to avoid the black ice and possibly avoid a collision with another car. Also, if a tree were to fall down onto the road, the smart car will be alerted that an unknown object is on the road which will help the driver avoid hitting the tree. Drivers will be more confident and feel safer while driving in harsh weather conditions because they know that they can rely not just on themselves, but also on smart roads and smart cars helping them …show more content…
Smart roads and smart cars will be able to decrease the rate of accidents with programs that will collect information given off by the smart car and smart road and use it to create safety alerts and warnings. A program that is being developed with this kind of purpose is called IntelliDrive. Intellidrive is going “to create interoperable connectivity among vehicles, infrastructure, and passengers’ wireless devices” (Row). Intellidrive will be able to create an interconnection between both the smart car and smart road providing a safer driving environment. With Intellidrive, the smart road will inform the driver of the smart car of every other cars’ exact position and its speed. The driver will then be able to determine exactly when it is safe enough to switch lanes. In addition, drivers will be warned if the cars up ahead have begun to break so they can start slowing down to avoid a collision. With IntelliDrive, the rate of car accidents and deaths by car accidents will drop