A GPS-based slowdown warning system for automotive safety

We propose the concept of a slow-down warning system in automobiles. If a driver on a highway decelerates suddenly or progresses abnormally slowly (thereby posing a hazard to the vehicles behind him), then, with such a system, all the cars behind him are provided information of this, near simultaneously. This advance information gives the drivers additional time to react in preparation of the impending slow-down. Simulations demonstrate that this additional time is sufficient to alleviate collisions. Furthermore, it is seen that even if only a fraction of the cars in a platoon are equipped with such a system, this can still be sufficient to alleviate crashes even in the unequipped cars. A prototype of such a system has been developed and installed in a few cars, and road tests have been conducted to verify the hardware performance.