Tango Networks BlogThe stop light is talking to my car … where autonomous vehicles are going next

Imagine you pull up to a red traffic light in your car. A notification pops up on your car’s dash: “OK to Text.”

As you text away on your mobile phone, the dash notification counts down the time until the light turns green. Then the texting function of your phone is suspended.

That’s the promise of the near future of assisted and automated driving, technologies called V2I (Vehicle to Infrastructure) communication.

These “smart infrastructure” innovations are explored in new article written by our CTO Andrew Silver and published this week in American Trucker, a leading publication serving the trucking industry.

“The cars of the future will perceive and act on their environments in ways that human drivers can’t today,” Andrew says in the article. “As these innovations mature, they will reduce many of the risky distracted driving behaviors that have led to a sharp rise in traffic fatalities.”

Distracted driving is reaching epidemic proportions. Safety experts cite it as a chief cause of the recent escalation in motor vehicle deaths in the US, with unsafe mobile phone usage topping the list of risky behaviors.

The focus on these topics in Andrew’s articles comes at the same time US officials have released findings showing that a driver was killed when he relied too heavily on autonomous vehicle technology. The fatal 2016 crash of a Tesla on “autopilot” was caused in part by the driver’s over-reliance on the driver assistance technologies of the vehicle, officials announced last week.

The new “smart” roadway technologies now being piloted in places around the country could help reduce the risk of distracted driving, Andrew said in his article.

V2I technologies enable the highway to convey information about driving conditions, roadway problems and other data about the environment to the car.

But they also could synchronize a “smart” car’s systems with traffic controls, for example, such as in the case of a traffic light that gives you a safe window for texting on your mobile phone. Vehicles now coming to market have the technology to engage in these communications, Andrew wrote.

“This technology promises to make vehicles truly ‘smart and sensing,’ eventually having the ability to adjust to conditions on the fly in ways that humans can’t. Those innovations should enhance the development of fully automated self-driving vehicles since they will enable vehicles to sense and respond to the real-time data about roadway conditions.”

Complementing these V2I technologies are policy enforcement solutions that enable a company to automatically enforce safer driving practices. For example, our Responsible Driver System enables a company to prevent unsafe talking and texting on mobile phones by their drivers of fleet vehicles in transit, logistics and delivery operations.

Mobile-X from Tango Networks harnesses next-generation fixed mobile convergence technologies for better mobile communications for the distributed workforce. Now workers anywhere can have seamless corporate communications, including  Mobile Unified Communications, work-from-home, remote worker, teleworker, telecommuting, connected worker and business continuity programs.

Learn more about Mobile-X and our Responsible Driver System that enables companies to enforce responsible driving policies on their drivers. Contact us today to learn more about Mobile-X.