Automotive  

Connected cars are stunning in their technological developments. Their ease and convenience, however, could have big implications for our privacy.

Automotive technology is advancing so quickly that you are likely to lose count of auto innovations that have been introduced within a particular time. For instance, even before the concept of self-driving cars gets cold, connected vehicle (V2V) communication is here and already capturing the attention of the newsrooms. It is no doubt that technology is making cars smarter each day.
When vehicles are connected, they can communicate with each other on the road. This kind of communication will see vehicles relay information to each other concerning their exact locations in order to avoid collisions and potential road hazards. According to NHTSA, connected vehicles are estimated to prevent nearly 81% of car accidents every year.

Connected car technology will also be fundamental in the development of autonomous vehicles. Once self-driving cars start communicating to each other about their position on the road, sharing their speed information, and communicating their next intentions to each other, automakers will have significantly deterred collisions that often emerge as a result of human error. You will probably bid farewell to those defensive driving courses offered at Florida traffic school.

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It’s amazing to imagine the way city streets and highways could be easier when these automotive innovations are blended and comprehensively implemented.

Connected vehicle communication technology means a lot to our privacy and the general safety. As more vehicles are getting connected to the internet, we are more exposed to hackers and criminals tracking us as we move through various locations. Once many cars are connected, a substantial amount of information will be flowing through them. Among this information will be real-time locations, and even financial details and other personal information.

If hackers see value in hacking a laptop, you can only imagine the value they see in hacking your cab. For instance, someone could potentially keep track of your connected car’s movement to know where you are in a particular time, and thus he would know when would be a good time to break into your home or office and steal valuables.

It’s important to note that people once rubbished the idea of remotely taking control of critical car functions, an idea that is becoming possible with every autonomous car that is being manufactured. Wirelessly connecting cars and making wireless updates to them sounds like a great idea. However, it may also expose people traveling in the connected vehicles to potential attacks. Hackers might take advantage of this technology to hack into your car’s systems and take over its control. Hackers could then commit serious crimes while in control of your vehicle.

Moreover, smart devices like connected cameras, sensors, and voice-controls may be used by manufacturers to frequently monitor customer conversations and movements without their knowledge or consent. Hackers and other criminals can also take advantage of how computers talk to each other to regularly eavesdrop and monitor you wherever you are when you converse with family and friends.

What concerns most people is that a lot of information about your entire driving history is being gathered. And according to reports, auto manufacturers are using third parties in handling this crucial data. As such, you can’t tell who will have access to your personal driving information and how it is used. This significantly jeopardizes your privacy and your overall safety. As such, it is crucial that automotive industries make their practices crystal clear to consumers. In fact, they should come up with consume r rights in order to deter sensitive data gathering from the onset of such technologies.

Car-to-car communication will no doubt revolutionize the entire road transport system. However, there are significant issues to be sought out first. For instance, there are no intrusion detection systems yet to alert consumers of a potential attack on their car systems. Also, the auto industry has to address the pertinent questions about the privacy of its consumers.

By  Jamison Hutton	Embed
Jamison Hutton is a car enthusiast and small business consultant. He's a freelance journalist and loves writing about people's small business dreams. He lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and son.

 Smart Cars  

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute recently unveiled a technology that displays traffic signs on a car's dashboard to let drivers know ahead of time whether they need to stop at an intersection or proceed when no cars are approaching.

I addition to driverless cars, one of the key tools for improving traffic safety in the future could well be connected-vehicle technology, which is being developed by many car makers and research institutes across the globe. This technology is based on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, aiming to reduce collisions by allowing vehicles to interact with each other and with different types of infrastructure, so that they can receive real-time information on road and weather conditions, and potential road hazards, which could help prevent injuries and improve traffic flow.

One really innovative idea that could further enhance connected-vehicle technology was recently unveiled by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. It's a technology that displays traffic signs on a car's dashboard, primarily stop and yield signs, in order to let drivers know ahead of time whether they need to stop at an intersection or proceed when no cars are approaching.

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Researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute have created a system that includes a screen mounted inside a vehicle, alerting the driver of what to do when approaching an intersection – if there are no other cars at the intersection, the driver will be able to pass through the intersection and keep driving, and if there are other cars approaching, the driver will be alerted to stop and yield. "The idea is there would be no physical stop or yield signs on the side of the road, but they would be inside the vehicle," said Alexandria Noble of Newark, Delaware, a master's student with the Virginia Tech Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who is working with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

"While a relatively new area in the transportation realm, adaptive stop/yield signs have the potential to be a long-term solution for not only minimizing traffic problems experienced on increasingly congested roadways, they may also help mitigate negative environmental impacts."

With this type of system, drivers will be able to save a lot of money on gas, and time. They wouldn't have to bring their cars to a complete stop each time they approach an intersection, even if there are no other vehicles near them, which would help ease traffic congestion, in addition to decreased fuel consumption, resulting in reduced air pollution.

Thomas A. Dingus, the director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and civil and environmental professor at Virginia Tech explained the benefits that an implementation of such a system in all vehicles could bring. "While a relatively new area in the transportation realm, adaptive stop/yield signs have the potential to be a long-term solution for not only minimizing traffic problems experienced on increasingly congested roadways, they may also help mitigate negative environmental impacts," he said.

The technology has been tested at the Virginia Smart Road, with several people between the ages of 18 and 25 and a few drivers over 50, driving cars equipped with small screens on their dashboards that alert the driver by displaying a flashing message saying “stop” or “yield”, or letting the driver know that they can proceed, but it has yet to be tested in real-world traffic situations.

This project is part of Virginia Tech's efforts for developing vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications technology, and it is funded by the United States Department of Transportation.

By Jordan Perch Author Bio - Jordan Perch is an automotive fanatic and “safe driving” specialist. He is a writer for DMV.com, which is a collaborative community designed to help ease the stress and annoyance of “dealing with the DMV”

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