Catherine Smola at CSIO makes excellent points about the value of data standards for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. She pinpoints many of the benefits to drivers – or, with the dawn of driverless cars, perhaps we'd better just call them car occupants.
She also notes the immense potential for systemic improvements, such as these: “With access to standardized data collected from hundreds or thousands of vehicles, insurers and engineers can advocate for improved road design in that area even if individual drivers do not report the danger. V2V communications standards may enable the coordination of efforts between the insurance industry, highway agencies, infrastructure authorities and consumer organizations alike.”
The key here is coordination. We're moving beyond the situation where individual organizations act according to partial information. Like drivers, organizations can only react to what they see around them. Just as satellite navigation systems and real time traffic data are giving drivers an “overhead” view, so V2V data will provide a whole-system picture of our transportation infrastructure in action. That means better, faster, clearer, and cheaper roads for everyone. Connected Cars