Technology exists for some cars to receive a dashboard warning that a school bus is stopped just ahead with its stop sign extended.
Good drivers are required to stop when the sign is extended from the side of the bus with its lights flashing, but school districts report that an extended stop sign is widely ignored by drivers. In Fulton County, Georgia, up to 680 violations have been reported in a single day in which cars have overtaken buses with stop signs deployed.
Applied Information and other companies demonstrated technology recently in the Atlanta area that sends a direct signal from a school bus with its stop sign extended to approaching vehicles, in this case a recent Audi vehicle relying on Qualcomm tech that shows a graphic of a stop sign and a school bus warning sign. The signal is bi-directional, meaning the car also can inform the bus to keep its doors closed until the car passes, should a child run out after the driver retracts the stop sign.
The radios involved in the school bus safety example and several others were part of a demonstration event conducted by the 5G Automotive Association. In addition to school bus safety, others described the benefits of C-V2X technology, where near-instant safety messages are shared between vehicles and as well as nearby infrastructure, including traffic cameras and roadside units.
In nearby Peachtree Corners, Georgia, C-V2X is already being deployed for “green light advisory” information received inside each vehicle that instructs drivers to keep at a consistent speed in order to pass through successive green lights over a commute route. The advisory is potentially available to 60,000 cars a day on a busy route, said Brandon Branham, assistant city manager and chief technology officer.
Branham said there are many companies offering technology for greater vehicle and pedestrian safety, but admitted it is hard to get the message out. User acceptance of the technology will grow if the technology is “an inherent part of the vehicle itself,” he said in an online panel discussion on Tuesday following the in-person demonstrations a week earlier. “We’ve done a good job of educating residents” on the green light advisory.
Jim Misener, global V2x ecosystem lead at Qualcomm, said many C-V2X technologies are ready for prime time use. The demonstrations in Atlanta “are a microcosm of what could happen with a green light from the FCC.” Companies such as Spoke are even offering C-V2X capabilities for bicyclists, he added.
Bryan Mulligan, president and founder of Applied Information, said C-V2X capabilities exist today but in the U.S. must be proven to officials in 10,000 city, county and state entities that oversee traffic. “You have to start penetrating with citizens and traffic engineers and all who want to see the benefits and then go to the mayor,” he said. The ultimate goal is to reduce the numbers of traffic deaths, now at 43,000 last year alone in the U.S.
Mulligan also argued that C-V2X will work in a complementary way with car-based sensors including lidars, radars and cameras to reduce accidents and increase safety. “This is not either/or and the two will be complementary,” he said of both car sensors and C-V2X.
Sensors will give information at the moment as needed, he noted. In one example he described driving on a highway when suddenly encountering an “obscured danger” where a set of sensors sees a vehicle stopping just ahead and dives off to the right to avoid a collision without revealing that several cars are all suddenly stopped for an accident further ahead. A C-V2X system might have allowed other cars to quickly warn of a sudden stop to give the driver a split second to respond, he said.
Several car companies are adopting C-V2X. “China is a big mover on this [C-V2X] and the biggest market for most companies including Audi,” said Brad Stertz, director of Audi government affairs in Washington. “We’re definitely figuring out how this fits into future product plans.”
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