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Coming Soon to a Car Near You: Wireless Access

Cars just keep getting smarter. At first, it was kind of neat that they could tell us the temperature and which direction we were headed. Now they can give us point-to-point directions and warn us if we’re lousy at parallel parking.

Cars talk to us. But not to one another.

That could be about to change as researchers such as Weidong Xiang, Ph.D., lead the way toward a new era of wireless highway networks.

“Every computer used to be isolated, but connecting computers together brought us the Internet,” said Xiang, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. “For the past 100 years, vehicles have been driver bound. In the future, they will be connected to one another to share resources, leading to significant advances in safety and traffic management.”

A series of industry standards are in development for the U.S. Department of Transportation, which will establish a structure for Wireless Access in Vehicle Environments, or WAVE. Xiang and his colleagues are working to develop the technology that will allow automotive manufacturers to incorporate this new technology into vehicles.

The goal is to use wireless devices installed in cars and along roadsides to send data from vehicle to vehicle. Drivers could be alerted about traffic jams, poor weather conditions or detours. It could also be used to develop new safety systems that would alert drivers so they could avoid potential collisions or cause the car to automatically respond if it detects problems with a vehicle up ahead.

It could even help you find the lowest gas prices in town.

“High-speed wireless connections have already had significant impact on our daily lives,” said Xiang, who works in concert with the Institute for Advanced Vehicle Systems and the Henry W. Patton Center for Engineering Education and Practice. “WAVE can have a similarly profound effect by enhancing quality of life.”

WAVE could also have significant economic impact as well. These technologies could provide a new competitive edge for automakers and also foster the development of new service operations, similar to cellular carriers.

The key is developing the technology—and getting roadside components installed. Xiang already has hosted demonstrations at international conferences on devices built in test labs at the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Currently, he is working to develop a track to test the performance of devices when subjected to various road scenarios. His group is looking at running tests involving one or two cars, transmitting in real time to a roadside access point. Xiang is seeking ways to overcome technical difficulties posed by issues like Doppler shifts, which turns out a provisional patent in 2007

Once WAVE standards are ratified, devices will be ready by about 2010, Xiang said. From there, it will depend on how long it takes the Department of Transportation to act on installing the necessary roadside infrastructure to support WAVE.

The state of California is already actively working on installation. In Michigan, some test roads have been fitted with equipment, which Xiang is hoping to use in his research. Xiang is now closely working with the Office of Technology Transfer with support from Michigan University Commercialization Initiative (MUCI) in order to build up the first WAVE prototype in 2008.

“There’s a huge market for this technology, but the system isn’t built yet,” he said. “It’s the right time.”

-- The Catalyst, University of Michigan, Dearborn, Fall 2007.[updated]