Nissan and Verizon will offer safer drives with their new technology
So Bill Gates wants to inject a sensor into you so he can track you? Mmmm? Let’s think about that for a moment. Firstly, why would he want to know where you are? Secondly, you already tell everyone who wants to know where you are at all times via your cellphone. As far back as 2006, a woman in Cape Town was convicted of hiring a hitman, partly because her cellphone profile could show which side of her house she was in at different times. Cellphone technology has come a long way since then. You can already track your teenage child on a night out and see if they speed or go into the wrong areas.
But what if we can use this existing cell technology to actively do good? Nissan and American cellphone giant Verizon are doing exactly that. They are creating a giant swarm of connected devices that will track where you and every other car and pedestrian are in a particular area, as well as the speed and direction everyone is moving in. Should it detect that you may collide with another car or pedestrian, mainly in a blind spot, it will alert you. So if you are turning into a narrow road at the same time that a pedestrian is about to emerge from behind a parked van, it will warn you.
The beauty of this system is that it uses existing technology – the Verizon cellular network, sensors in connected cars and the signal from your smartphone. This technology is already in use, for example, to regulate your speed so you will get every traffic light green. Your traffic app also uses the same technology.
The Nissan Verizon system is a bit more complex because it will tell the driver of pedestrians or other vehicles he cannot see. It is immediately obvious how this could help ambulances and fire engines get to an emergency quicker and safer.
This technology will also play a big role in finally solving the elusive puzzle of autonomous driving.
All this is still at an early development stage, but most of the components needed already exist. Although nothing has been confirmed, there is speculation that Nissan will use a next-generation EV like the Ariya to launch its part of this network.
