In the very likely case you live in a major metropolitan region and drive daily, you always leave home with the knowledge that part of the day will be lost sitting idle in your car struck in traffic jams.
By the way, we should also remind you that road congestion is not only frustrating and stressful for the driver and passengers, but also utterly expensive and wasteful. According to a recent research made by Centre for Economics and Business Research shows that in the US traffic congestion brings economical losses of $124 billion in 2013 – with the prospect of it increasing for both the US and Europe to more than double, incurring losses of $293 billion. Inrix, a traffic information company, even calculated the monetary value of carbon emissions stemming from cars sitting idle in traffic – it was $300 million in 2013. The company also forecasts it to be on the growth as well, by 2030 reaching a total value of $538 million – with a total of $7.6 billion over the 17-year period.
But there’s an interesting solution: connected vehicles. Together with the expected introduction of partially and then fully-automated driverless cars, the idea of connecting cars could be the final solution to the traffic jam problem. And that would mean that cars could communicate with each other, but also with their surroundings – roads, traffic signals and more. Disbeliveers say there’s a big hurdle: a massive investment is needed to build smart transportation. But much of the underlying technology already exists – such as smart parking spaces, automated tollbooths, partially autonomous cars and even vehicle-to-vehicle communication.