Here's a car that can see around corners! Japanese maker Mazda started public road trials of its Advanced Safety Vehicle, the ASV-4, which alerts drivers of oncoming traffic at blind corners.
By using vehicle-to-vehicle radar technology, the ASV-4 can detect when a car is approaching at a bend, then will alert the driver before automatically applying the brakes if necessary. Later this year Mazda will also test the new tech - called the Precrash Safety System - as a means of preventing rear-end and right-turn collisions in which a car turns across the flow of traffic.
The ASV-4 test vehicle - based on a Mazda 5 MPV - signals the fourth phase of Mazda's involvement in the ASV scheme launched by the Japanse government in 1991 to reduce the number of road traffic accidents. This fourth phase began in 2006 and is due to be complete in 2010, so expect to see ASV technology filtering into Mazda products by the start of the next decade.
But it doesn't end at car-to-car communication, as Mazda is simultaneously testing an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) which creates a link between cars, people and the road network to tackle traffic jams as well as accidents.
That traffic jam and accident-free utopia might be closer than you think!