Peer to Peer Networking for Road Traffic

alecclews writes "The BBC is reporting on some German research to allow the exchange of information between road vehicles about travel conditions using peer to peer networking (I assume some sort of mesh). Cars or bikes experiencing problems would pass data that would ripple down the chain of vehicles behind them. 'For example, cars could spot oil on the road by combining temperature readings with wheel traction information. 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.'"

Re:Four pieces of data and repeaters

[daeg]

Much of this information can already be obtained from you cell phone company. No need to have it based on a separate device.

I believe a few cities are working on implementing this, Tampa being one of them.

It's Been Around for a While

[StormyMonday]

The network part is very much Old News; it's called Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) [wikipedia.org]. It's been around for several years, and there are a number of standards committees working on it.

Last I heard, a year or so ago, there was a limited rollout planned for some luxury cars in the 2008 model year, with some simple car-to-roadside communications (map updates, traffic signal status, etc).

The new part here is using AI to sort out what information to give to the driver, and how. It's obvious that if you're not careful, you'll swamp the driver in information.

Coupla other items:

• Spoofing: A problem. Last time I worked on it, they were looking at some digital signature tricks.
• Privacy: A problem. Basically, every time a radio goes out of contact, it randomizes its MAC address. It'll work fine -- if it's properly implemented. Remember WEP?
• IPv6: Yuppers. All the way.