An earlier blog posting about the Japanese Advanced Safety Vehicle project gave a little too much credit to Honda. The work is part of a government-coordinated effort in Japan, and Nissan has since wheeled out its implementation of the ASV version 3 specifications.

The ASV project – designed to foster automatic vehicle-to-vehicle communication to detect impending danger – will hold a lot more promise if the number of auto makers involved is maximised, so the inclusive Japanese initiative is to be applauded.

The car-to-car comms parameters can be thrashed out and agreed by everybody, and then the individual carmakers can go away and compete, differentiating themselves in the way that they implement the system. Some makers may choose highly automated intervention systems, while others may prefer to leave control in the hands of humans and instead concentrate on giving the driver better information on which to act.

Filed under cars and computers