Mobile network technology for smarter cars February 22, 2011 As
you are about to drive into an intersection, a piercing alarm
and a flashing red warning light cause you to hit the brakes
hard. You narrowly avoid a serious collision with a car running
a red light. Today, a relatively few cars equipped with
expensive radar- and camera-based collision-avoidance systems
could give you this warning. But if a coalition of automakers
backed by the U.S. Department of Transportation has its way,
much cheaper warning systems would be installed in all new cars
before the end of the decade. The key is replacing expensive
sensors with cheap and ubiquitous global positioning system
(GPS) and Wi-Fi wireless technology. Cars are full of electronic
sensors and computers that monitor all phases of vehicle
operation. GPS, already present in cars with built-in navigation
systems and inexpensive to add to others, can provide data on
precise location, acceleration, speed, and direction. Wi-Fi
provides an easy way to broadcast the