ITS: Florida DOT shows off fruits of V2V, V2I research labors

The Florida Department of Transportation hosted a gathering of state transportation officials at its Traffic Engineering Research Laboratory in Tallahassee in October to demonstrate its latest vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) applications. 

FDOT staff performed two V2V and two V2I demonstrations for Florida Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad and others. Vehicles in all four demonstrations were equipped with an onboard dedicated short-range communication radio, GPS antenna and a computer. The onboard unit transmitted basic safety message 10 times per second while interacting with roadside units. All vehicles were synced to the department’s SunGuide traffic-management software.

In the first V2I demonstration, the roadside units established a wrong-way detection zone and transmitted an alert to any vehicles found entering it; the adjacent vehicles also received a warning that a vehicle was traveling the wrong way. The second demo saw the system sending alerts to over-height vehicles in danger of colliding with a roadway structure. If the over-height detector was tripped, the vehicle in question received instructions on how to proceed.

V2V demonstrations saw the system alerting drivers when the vehicle in front of them suddenly applied the brakes. Similarly, drivers were also alerted when an emergency vehicle was approaching, with notifications about its distance, speed and the direction of travel.