Thanks to a novel solution developed by an Australian university, soon our cars, buses and trains can talk to one another and share tip-offs on traffic congestions.

Using this solution, which has passed through the pilot stage, vehicles can exchange traffic information or receive alerts about an approaching train within a radius of one kilometre.

“We are getting ready for deploying the solution in a much larger vehicle population,” Prof. Jugdutt Singh, Director, Centre for Technology Infusion, La Trobe University, said.

Jugdutt Singh, who is also involved in micro technologies and nano electronics, was in Hyderabad as part of an Australian delegation that is holding discussions with several IT companies and research institutes in India.

Tech Mahindra, which is also into development of IT solutions for automobiles, has shown interest in the project.

NICTA, Australia’s Information Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence, has said that opportunities like these would open up business avenues for Indian IT companies.

“You need analytics, cloud and optimisation solutions for deploying such technologies,” Hugh Durrant-Whyte, Chief Executive officer of NICTA, said.

“We use Dedicated Short Range Communication or DSRC technology embedded in the car navigation system. All the vehicles with such chips can talk to one another and advice the driver(s) accordingly,” Jugdutt Singh said.

“If the amount of information is very high for processing, it can be done in the cloud. The toughest part, however, is not machine to machine communication. It is machine to human interaction that poses challenges. You need the help of psychologists too here,” he said.

>kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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