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Whenever you hear a wailing siren in traffic, your first instinct is to try and figure out from where it's coming, and that's not always easy. Frequently an ambulance, fire engine, or police car has to be pretty close to you for you to see it, and then work out how best to move out of its way.
Ford is aiming to help with that, by developing a new car-to-car communications system which lets the emergency services broadcast a radio frequency, a virtual siren if you will, that will flash up a warning on your dashboard, along with an arrow indicating where the ambulance etc. is coming from.
"Time is precious for emergency services and this technology could help to shave valuable seconds off their journeys by enabling drivers to avoid being an obstruction," said Christian Ress, supervisor, Automated Driving Europe, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering.
The Ford system is being shown off at the UK Autodrive event, a £20-million government-sponsored trial of connected cars supported by 16 technology and automotive businesses, local authorities and academic institutions.
Ford has partnered with the West Midlands Fire Service to trial the system, and Peter Allington, Road Casualty Reduction Team at West Midlands Fire Service, said that: "West Midlands Fire Service has a pledge to attend serious incidents within five minutes. Connected technologies like these, that help to improve communications between vehicles, could help us get to people even more quickly when they really need us."
For now the system is a relatively simple direction finder, but in the future the car's on-board systems could scan the surrounding environment and help you choose the best course of action to safely get out of the emergency vehicle's way.
Ford is also trialling technology that can alert drivers to potential accidents when they are approaching a crossroads. With Intersection Collision Warning, the car broadcasts its location to nearby vehicles which - if equipped with the same technology - then calculate the risk of a crash. If the risk is high then a warning tells both drivers to slow down or stop. For example, it could alert drivers when a car approaching from another direction has ignored a red traffic light.
Previously, as part of the trials, Ford showcased systems that warn when cars ahead, which may be hidden by a bend in the road, brake hard; as well as technology that shows how cars can synchronise with traffic lights to "ride the green wave", improving journeys through urban areas. Trials of all four technologies are ongoing in the Coventry and Milton Keynes areas until end of 2018 when UK Autodrive will be finalised.