Up to 90 percent of all crashes caused by driver error can be eliminated, according to technical professional association IEEE (News - Alert).

Experts at IEEE insist that about every traffic accident could be eliminated if existing intelligent transportation technologies such as in-vehicle machine vision and sensors to detect drowsy drivers were implemented in our vehicles and roads.

Several intelligent transportation technologies can be considered for such use but according to IEEE, costs of such technologies should decrease so that the average consumer can afford these vehicle safety features.

“Within 10 years, as technology costs continue to fall and implementation of these technologies increases, we could see significant improvements in vehicle safety, efficiency, and energy conservation – especially in developing parts of the world where high-end cars are not yet affordable by the general public,” said Dr. Azim Eskandarian, IEEE member and director of the Center for Intelligent Systems Research at The George Washington University.

Teruo Higashino, IEEE senior member and professor of information networking at Osaka University in Japan, has worked on applying wireless networking technology for vehicle-to-vehicle communication and this has significantly reduced accidents.

Dr. Alberto Broggi, president of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society and professor at the Universita di Parma in Italy, forecasts intelligent transportation technologies will forever change our concept of car use.

"Many governments are establishing new emissions and fuel efficiency standards for vehicle manufacturers to meet in the next ten years," said IEEE senior member Matt Barth, at the Center for Environmental Research and Technology at University of California-Riverside. "The integration of ECO-ITS technologies – such as eco-routing into our vehicles – will be an important evolution in further reducing carbon emissions, achieving greater fuel efficiency, and strengthening energy independence."

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