Topics in automotive networking [Series Editorial]

IEEE VNC 2010 attracted a tremendous amount of attention from car manufacturers and academia, with close to 100 submissions in this fast growing area. This level of interest was a clear manifestation of this exponentially growing research area that could revolutionize our daily lives. Indeed, the emerging and future applications of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are quite impressive. While the car manufacturers have embraced this area of research as one of their own mainly due to safety applications, the current research efforts have gone far beyond the initial premise and currently include traffic information systems that could mitigate congestion and improve traffic flow in urban areas, smart grid applications via electric vehicles and vehicular networks, entertainment, and mobile advertising, among others. Some of these applications are also tightly coupled with "greener environments" through the reduction of the carbon footprint of cars, alternative energy, "smart cities," and so on, whereby the vehicular networks (or "talking cars") are at the heart of these major initiatives. We believe that the current level of interest we are experiencing from industry and academia is based on these exciting opportunities and will therefore continue to grow exponentially in the next decade. It is widely believed that cars manufactured and sold in the United States will be equipped with dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) radios by 2013. This, coupled with expected rollout of fourth-generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) access by wireless carriers, will in turn increase the safety of cars, reduce accidents and fatalities in urban areas and on highways, and make driving a much more pleasant experience than it is today. As such, vehicular networking is one of those unique areas where communications and networking technology can create new opportunities and solutions for major problems and bottlenecks in transportation, energy, and greener environment. Thus, the - - future potential of vehicular networks seems huge.