Having a buffalo cross the road when your speedometer has hit the 120 km/hr-mark on the national highway can be disastrous. But what if your car has already conveyed the message to the animal? It�ll take the cue and totter off the road, avoiding a possible accident. The trick was done by a chip embedded in the car which emitted a high frequency sound to the approaching animal.
As cars turn more intelligent, chip manufacturers are determined to make cars talk. And the talk can be a plain social one via Facebook or Twitter, or warning signals from neighbouring cars of a potential rash driver in the vicinity. Although the Indian eco-system is not yet evolved to facilitate highly sophisticated communication systems, exciting features are being custom-made to meet the special requirements of a particular locale.
�There were several cases of accidents being reported in the US caused by deer crossing the paths of drivers. Due to the high intensity of the crash, the deer�s antlers stick right into the car, causing damage to the cars and drivers,� says Ganesh Guruswamy, vice-president and country manager (India) of semiconductor firm Freescale. He was explaining the reasons for custom-making chips which can trigger the emission of high frequency sound on detecting the presence of a target in the line of a car�s path.
But inter-vehicle communication can be possible only if there is an open platform, whereby all vehicles can understand the communication signals being passed on. And for this, the involvement of the government is crucial. Although such technology may take many years to come to India, chip manufacturers who have their R&D centres here like NXP, are already involved in creating an open platform for vehicles to communicate. Infact, a consortium of players have initiated field trials for a strategic platform for intelligent traffic system (SPITS) in the Netherlands, with the support of the Dutch government, says Neeraj Paliwal, VP & India MD of NXP.
A team comprising chip manufacturers like NXP and Catena, TomTom (which provides portable GPS navigation systems) and GreenCat are currently working on a project which tracks key parameters like spotting a car at a particular point of time, assessing the speed of the vehicle, how long it will take to go from one place to another and so on.
�With these parameters, drivers get warning signals displayed on their LCD panels if they cross the speed limits in a particular area,� says Neeraj. Explaining the technology behind this, Mr Neeraj says: �There are chips embedded in the traffic light which sends a signal to your car about the speed limit of that particular area. Cars are also asked to take detours if there is a traffic block on the route they are taking.�