What is it?
Smart car: An automobile with advanced electronics. Microprocessors have been used in car engines since the late 1960s and have steadily increased in usage throughout the engine and drivetrain to improve stability, braking and general comfort. The 1990s added information-oriented enhancements such as GPS navigation, reverse sensing systems and night vision (able to visualize animals and people beyond normal human range). The 2000s are adding Web and e-mail access, voice control, smart card activation instead of keys and systems that keep the vehicle a safe distance from cars and objects in its path.
Smart road:An automated highway system, one which lets control information pass among vehicles and the infrastructure, will combine ITS technologies to maximize safety and efficiency and relieve congestion and associated costs. These technologies will probably include collision warning and avoidance devices, guidance devices, electronic brakes, electronically controlled steering, and other sensors to supplement - and ultimately, perhaps, replace - human driving judgment.
IT SYSTEMS

Smart cars:

• Inteligent Speed Adaptation - any system that constantly monitors the local speed limit and the vehicle speed and implements an action when the vehicle is found to be exceeding the speed limit.Intelligent speed adaptation uses information about the area through which the vehicle travels to make decisions about what the correct speed should be. Intelligent systems know when the vehicle has entered a new speed zone, know when variable speed zones are in force (e.g. school zones) and can be configured to work with temporary speed zones (such as at accident scenes or near roadworks). - uses GPS, Radio Beacons, Optical recognition, and Dead Reckoning technology.
  

Global Positioning System

• GPS is based on a network of satellites that constantly transmit radio signals. GPS receivers pick up these transmissions and compare the signals from several satellites in order to pinpoint the receiver’s location to within a few meters. This is done by comparing the time at which the signal was sent from the satellite to when it was picked up by the receiver.

Radio Beacons

• Roadside radio beacons work by transmitting data to a receiver in the car. The beacons constantly transmit data that the car-mounted receiver picks up as it passes each beacon. This data could include local speed limits, school zones, variable speed limits, or traffic warnings. If sufficient numbers of beacons were used and were placed at regular intervals, they could calculate vehicle speed based on how many beacons the vehicle passed per second. Beacons could be placed in/on speed signs, telegraph poles, other roadside fixtures, or in the road itself. Mobile beacons could be deployed in order to override fixed beacons for use around accident scenes, during poor weather, or during special events. Beacons could be linked to a main computer so that quick changes could be made.

Opitical recognition

• This system requires the vehicle to pass a speed sign or similar indicator for data. As the system recognizes a sign, the speed limit data is obtained and compared to the vehicle’s speed. The system would use the speed limit from the last sign passed until it recognizes a speed sign with a different limit.

Dead Reckoning

• Uses a mechanical system linked to the vehicle’s driving assembly in order to predict the path taken by the vehicle. By measuring the rotation of the road wheels over time, a fairly precise estimation of the vehicle’s speed and distance traveled can be made. Dead reckoning requires the vehicle to begin at a known, fixed point. Then, by combining speed and distance data with factors such as the angle of the steering wheel and feedback from specialized sensors (e.g., accelerometers, flux gate compass, gyroscope) it can plot the path taken by the vehicle. By overlaying this path onto a digital map, the DR system knows approximately where the vehicle is, what the local speed limit is, and the speed at which the vehicle is traveling. The system can then use information provided by the digital map to warn of upcoming hazards or points of interest and to provide warnings if the speed limit is exceeded.

Anti-lock Braking Systems

• Is designed to monitor its own working and report failures. The entire ABS system is considered to be a hard real-time system, while the sub-system that controls the self diagnosis is considered soft real-time. As stated above, the general working of the ABS system consists of an electronic unit, also known as ECU (electronic control unit), which collects data from the sensors and drives the hydraulic control unit (HCU), mainly consisting of the valves that regulate the braking pressure for the wheels.designed to monitor its own working and report failures. The entire ABS system is considered to be a hard real-time system, while the sub-system that controls the self diagnosis is considered soft real-time. As stated above, the general working of the ABS system consists of an electronic unit, also known as ECU (electronic control unit), which collects data from the sensors and drives the hydraulic control unit (HCU), mainly consisting of the valves that regulate the braking pressure for the wheels.

Precrash System

• a passive automobile safety system designed to reduce the damage caused by a collision. Most use radar sensors to detect a credible crash; though, different systems react in different ways.

Advanced Parking Guidance System

• On the Lexus LS, the Advanced Parking Guidance System uses computer processors which are tied to the Lexus Intuitive Park Assist (sonar warning system) feature, backup camera, and two additional forward sensors on the front side fenders. The Intuitive Park Assist feature includes multiple sensors on the forward and rear bumpers which detect obstacles, allowing the system to sound warnings and calculate optimum steering angles during regular parking. These sensors plus the two additional APGS sensors are tied to a central computer processor, which in turn is integrated with the backup camera system to provide the driver parking information.

Etc.! Any types of added intelligence is possible to create a smart car!

Smart roads:

Automatic Road Enforcement

• Speed cameras that identify vehicles traveling over the legal speed limit. Many such devices use radar to detect a vehicle's speed or electromagnetic loops buried in each lane of the road.
• Red light cameras that detect vehicles that cross a stop line or designated stopping place while a red traffic light is showing.
• Bus Lane cameras that identify vehicles traveling in lanes reserved for buses. In some jurisdictions, bus lanes can also be used by taxis or vehicles engaged in car pooling.
• Level-crossing cameras that identify vehicles crossing railways at grade illegally.
• High-occupancy vehicle lane cameras for that identify vehicles violating HOV requirements.

Dynamic Traffic Light Sequence

• Intelligent RFID traffic control has been developed for dynamic traffic light sequence. It has circumvented or avoided the problems that usually arise with systems such as those, which use image processing and beam interruption techniques. RFID technology with appropriate algorithm and data base were applied to a multi vehicle, multi lane and multi road junction area to provide an efficient time management scheme. A dynamic time schedule was worked out for the passage of each column. The simulation has shown that, the dynamic sequence algorithm has the ability to intelligently adjust itself even with the presence of some extreme cases. The real time operation of the system able to emulate the judgment of a traffic policeman on duty, by considering the number of vehicles in each column and the routing proprieties.

ADVANTAGES

• "Adaptive Cruise Control" (ACC), which helps keep a safe distance from the car ahead, thus avoiding rear-end collisions, could prevent up to 4,000 accidents in 2010, even if only 3% of vehicles were equipped;
• "Lateral Support" (lane departure warning and lane change assistant) could prevent 1,500 accidents in 2010, given a penetration rate of only 0,6%, while a penetration rate of 7% in 2020 would lead to 14,000 fewer accidents;
• "Hypovigilance" systems to avoid driver drowsiness could play an important role in avoiding 30% of fatal crashes on motorways and 9% of all fatal accidents;
• Other systems like "Speed Alert" or “Gear Shift Indicators”, can also under certain circumstances, have an important impact on cleaner, safer and more efficient transport

DISADVANATAGES

Three main triangle heads lead ground transportation:

• Transportation consumers.
• Roadways owners - Most of the roads are public domain, and public authorities represent the owners.
• Transportation industry - Most of this industry is private.

Changing the traditional ground transportation scheme to a full automated and intelligent transportation network is a substantial upgrade of the scheme. Apparently the main problems that are hampering this upgrading to materialize are not technological limits, but cultural, conceptual, social, emotional, political and economical hurdles.
The inhibitions and barriers that are hampering innovative ground transportation systems are complex, diversified and interlaced one into another. Many different interests are entangled in the transportation world, and one factor may ruin a whole scheme or vision. Transportation scheme can be compared to huge clockwork, in which the component are co-dependent and integrated. Interference in this scheme should be done delicately, incrementally, intelligently, and morally.

Reliability of the smart road or car can be questioned because so little of the control belongs to the person and machinery always has malfunctions and errors.


Social Impact
Politics and Goverment

• The law can be enforced and assured without the need of police officers

Business and Employment

• A lot of technology and construction work is needed to be able to create smart roads everywhere. Car companies must have the ability to create smart cars and this will change the flow of design in the making of cars.

Health

• The significant reduction in car crashes and deaths that happen on the road affects the number of patients in hospitals and the necessity of expensive car insurance.
  

Sources

http://www.transportationet.com/

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3724/is_n2_v60/ai_19562462/pg_2/?tag=content;col1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Transportation_System#Societies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_car

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/intelligentcar/technologies/benefits/index_en.htm