Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) is increasingly being recognized as the protocol of choice for vehicle safety applications by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and road operators. DSRC offers the ability to communicate effectively from vehicle-to-vehicle and from vehicle to infrastructure with low latency and high reliability. A wide range of applications have been conceptualized to support safety, mobility and convenience, including: cooperative collision avoidance, travel information, and electronic payment. To be effective, infrastructure-based applications require an installed-vehicle base along with infrastructure deployment, while vehicle-to-vehicle applications require significant DSRC market penetration along with some degree of infrastructure support systems. Some vehicles currently include safety applications involving forward looking radar. The radar supplies information about objects, their distances and relative speed ahead of the host vehicle. When LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) becomes feasible for automotive usage, it may also offer an alternative digital vision of the objects in front of the host vehicle. Camera vision is another option for sensing surrounding vehicles. Radar, LIDAR, and camera have advantages and limitations in terms of range and directionality. OEMs are investigating DSRC as a means to enhance visibility of the oncoming and surrounding traffic, particularly in places where line-of-sight is obstructed by other vehicles, buildings, corners, etc. Future cooperative vehicle safety applications are expected to be mainly communication-based. A significant challenge lies ahead in combining and processing enormous amounts of information from the host, surrounding vehicles and infrastructure in real time fashion. This paper will focus on the expected potential of such visibility enhancement through the use of DSRC communication.
