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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on February 23, 2015 at 8:08am

Interesting technology, thanks for sharing. I'm curious of it's effectiveness. 

In a recent Chainlink article, we highlighted the technology Volvo announced at CES in January:

http://www.thechainlink.org/page/2015-ces-recap

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Permalink Reply by Duppie on February 23, 2015 at 8:43am

This will happen whether drivers like it or not. Traffic injuries cost society hundred of billions year, avlot of it covered by insurance.
Insurance companies look at this from a economic standpoint, and try to find ways to reduce the cost of insuring drivers.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 23, 2015 at 9:48am

Until the cars are fully automatic and the human operator is taken out of the loop, any advances that help drivers see and avoid most or some of the obstacles for their speeding courses cutting through the city they will just use up any new "safety" margin by either driving that much faster, or becoming even more distracted, hoping the technology will save them as they, shave, put on makeup or read their phones. 

I think it would be much easier and save more lives if cars were simply required to have technology that governed their speed to under 20MPH on all city streets.

Speeding is what kills pedestrians, bicyclists, and other street users when drivers strike them.   Crash Survivablity is cut in half for each 5mph increase in speed a driver strikes a person with their automobile.  When moving at speeds of 20mph or less the lethality of drivers striking people is much lower than at any higher speeds, but it goes up very quickly from that point.  20 should be the limit everywhere except for limited-access highways and freeways.

Cities such as Edinburgh have moved ahead to lower city traffic speeds to 20mph on most all non-highway or main arterial streets.  It would be a simple matter to use GPS data to electronically govern speeds so that a motor vehicle simply could not travel at a faster speed than the posted limit no matter how hard the driver pushed down on the accelerator pedal.   This technology could start out being implemented in all cabs, taxis, and livery vehicles.  They are the biggest offenders but we all know that city traffic already exceeds the posted limit by an average of 5-10mph, and many of the speed limits in town are already ridiculously high.  20 is the sweet spot that has been scientifically shown to save lives. 

Until we get self-driving cars that will not speed, the cars themselves are going to need to be taught to give some limits to the drivers who don't seem to care how dangerous their behavior is on the street when it comes to speed. 

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Permalink Reply by Joe Guzzardo on February 23, 2015 at 2:44pm

Hmmm, that link isn't very informative.

Nonetheless, high end cars these days are equipped with rear facing cameras and radars to help the driver back into a space. Indeed, some cars can parallel park themselves and the self driving vehicle is only a few years away from the general market.

Given these advances, its not hard to envision the day when cars are autonomously aware of everything around them. We can help them with bicycle transponders that integrate with these systems to make drivers aware of our presence. It would then be possible to eliminate the need for protected bike lanes in certain metropolitan areas where maximum speeds are less than say 25 mph.

And if John Kass wants us to pay for the right to use his road, the cost of the transponder can include his coveted bike fee.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on February 24, 2015 at 12:56pm

The technology needed is very low tech. It's called eyes, and using them to look where you're driving and looking in mirrors to spot bikers.

Bikers make sure you have lights and reflectors so you're not "invisible".

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