The world's largest technical professional association also said that intelligent transport systems – such as in-vehicle machine vision and sensors to detect drowsy drivers, lane departure warning systems, and vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications for safety applications – are the needs of the hour.

However, costs of such technologies need to continue to fall so the average consumer can afford these vehicle safety features.

Now your car wont grope in darkness!

“Today’s advanced embedded systems, sensors, microprocessors and control technologies have made our vehicles and roads significantly safer, but integrating them into our vehicles and roads has been a slow process,” said Dr. Azim Eskandarian, IEEE member and director of the Center for Intelligent Systems Research at The George Washington University.

“However, “ he continued, “within 10 years, as technology costs continue to fall and implementation of these technologies increases, we could see significant improvements in vehicle safety, efficiency, and energy conservation – especially in developing parts of the world where high-end cars are not yet affordable by the general public.”

Other challenges include market acceptance and potential liability concerns surrounding technologies that take total or partial control of the vehicle, such as collision avoidance and driver assistance programs like automatic braking.

MIT develops foldable car for busy cities

“However, these technologies may follow the path of driver- and passenger-side airbags and anti-lock braking systems (ABS) or electronic stability control (ESC), initially offered as optional features but today considered proven and often standard safety measures in nearly all vehicles,” Dr. Eskandarian said.

Advanced research on safety technologies is going far beyond individual vehicles. For example, Teruo Higashino, IEEE Senior Member and professor of information networking at Osaka University in Japan, has focused recently on applying wireless networking technology for vehicle-to-vehicle communication to help detect dangerous vehicles on the road – such as a car approaching a blind intersection – and warn nearby drivers, helping dramatically reduce accidents.