SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (June 7, 2013) — Denso International America Inc. invited high school students recently from Southfield, Dearborn and Westland, Mich., to participate in V2X-connected-vehicle ride-and-drives and an "Idea Jam" session at its Southfield headquarters June 6, to experience and discuss "Talking Car" technology.
Earlier this year, Denso gave 17 high school teams the "Talking Car" prototype technology for an afterschool project—the same technology the U.S. Department of Transportation and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute are testing in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Denso partnered with a nonprofit education organization, Square One Education Network (SQ1), to give the student teams a chance to see how the technology works, why it's important and to see what the students could do with it.
The students incorporated Denso's "Talking Car" devices in the one-person electric vehicles they designed for the SQ1 2013 Innovative Vehicle Design (IVD) competition.
Denso said that over the past five months, it has learned from the students in the program who uncovered challenges and offered new ideas.
Denso said its main focus has been on dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) devices that allow cars to communicate with other vehicles and traffic signals. DSRC uses a two-way, short-range wireless communication, akin to WiFi technology, to facilitate information exchange between vehicles about the car's location, velocity, acceleration and path history. On-board computers then use this data to predict vehicle locations and assist in avoiding collisions, according to Denso.