On the cusp of connected cars

An auto consortium is set to put the wireless V2X safety network to the test with 120 cars in the Frankfurt region.

Connected-car technology, if done right, would be safe, smart, and affordable. Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle- to-infrastructure (V2I) communications can alert drivers-and each other-of unseen road hazards and traffic jams. But before cars can be linked in wireless networks, engineers must show that the collective V2X technologies operate with bulletproof reliability. After all, fully verified safety is the only way to earn motorists' trust.

One significant remaining challenge to V2X technology, for example, is traffic congestion. What if every vehicle in a jam reported in simultaneously? Would the flood of signals overload the network? The German auto industry and road ministries are planning to find out during the coming spring in a large-scale test of the technology. Evaluation will take place amid the real road traffic of the some 5 million plus inhabitants of the Frankfurt-Rhine-Main area of the state of Hesse, the country's second largest metropolitan area.