Behind the Scenes, Auto Industry Works to Cut Accidents

(MoneyWatch)  NEW YORK -- With the Detroit 3 automakers fighting for their lives, it's sobering to be reminded that there's still a big community of federal, state and local governments, safety advocates, high-tech suppliers, engineers and automakers focused on safety, technology and the long, long-term effects of traffic and congestion.

"The vision is an environment where cars don't crash," said Michael Noblett, chairman of the 2008 ITS World Congress conference, to be held here Nov. 17-20. ITS stands for Intelligent Transportation Systems.

The concept of "intelligent highways" has been around for decades, but there's been so much progress in the last decade in computers, wireless communications, and satellite-based communication and navigation systems that ITS has new momentum behind it.

"We kill 42,000 people a year (in traffic accidents), the equivalent of a fully loaded airplane crashing every day," Noblett said.

"If this were anyplace else or any other industry, this would be a scandal, there would be investigations. But in our society somehow people see it as the cost of doing business. Well, the technology excuse is off the table," he said.

"It works, this stuff works, it really does do what we say it will do," Noblett said.

For instance, there's a pilot program in the San Francisco Bay area, part of a project called SafeTrip-21 that uses data from phones equipped with Global Positioning Satellite technology to keep tabs on traffic congestion, and to provide warning for tie-ups and alternate routes.

Paul Brubaker, administrator for the U.S. Department of Transportation research and innovative technology administration, said the proposed system provides much higher detail on secondary and local roads than current systems, which use stationary sensors to measure traffic flow, exclusively on major highways.

Brubaker said technology is also being developed to warn drivers of "rapid braking situations," before they occur.

"Some day these technologies will be as commonplace as seatbelts and air bags are today," Brubaker said, at an Oct. 23 press preview for the ITS World Congress.

Meanwhile, Noblett said his "day job" is vice president, business development ?€" automotive for Connexis LLC, a high-tech company in Lapeer, Mich. But for most of the last year, Noblett has devoted much of his time to the conference.