The government wants our cars to 'talk' to each other

04 Mar 2014 • engadget.com

For those that don't know, V2V systems allow cars to share information about their position, speed and heading with each other and alert a driver when there is potential for danger. That could be a car speeding through an intersection ahead or a truck in your blind spot when trying to change lanes. While there is potential for integration with automated collision avoidance technology in the future, initially the DOT will be focused on passive systems.

If you're concerned about the government having yet another avenue through which to track you, breathe easy. The data passed between vehicles includes no personally identifiable information. In fact, it doesn't even identify the car -- it only contains basic safety data. In addition to that, the NHTSA envisions multiple layers of security and privacy protection to ensure vehicles are sending and receiving reliable data.

Sounds like a great idea - and I'm glad we're already considering potential privacy issues.  Driving for most people is far to mindless of a task.  Having yet another avenue to warn someone of dangerous situations (before it's too late) strikes me as win-win.