Nissan to test car-to-car communication system

It seems that Nissan is testing a new car-to-car communications system in Japan – but before you get excited, not the sort where you can curse out the guy who just cut you off, or try to pick up the women in the car next to you. Instead, the system will be much more safety oriented, giving you proverbial eyes in the back of your head in its quest to decongest roads and increase safety.

The system sends signals between cars and roadside objects such as traffic lights and telegraph poles to determine vehicles' relative speed, distance and acceleration. This information is then analysed and can be used to send a warning signal if a car is in danger of running a red light or colliding with another car.

The system can also warn drivers with visual and audio prompts if they are speeding in school zones. Nissan isn’t the only one with this idea though, as Honda and Toyota have similar technologies in development and testing.

Nissan is also testing a separate technology that collects data from mobile phone users and uses it to assemble information on road congestion and provide tips on finding the fastest route to a destination, a service which is meant to be used to reduce congestion in Japans traffic logged cities.

This is further ground made for car manufacturers seeking to increase active safety measures, and if it can be mass-implemented in cars then it may become an integral development in the safety systems of cars. Even the Japanese government took great interest in the system, testing some cars equipped with the technology in October of 2005. If you want to see some images of what their test cars looked like with the system in place click here.