News.com has a clip about a system which BMW is developing (see photo):
BMW is working on a communication system that will let one car convey information about road conditions to those behind it. In this photo, the LCD screen on the dashboard flashes up a warning to a moving car that the road is slippery ahead. Minutes before, another car did a power slide through a wet patch on the same path.
Talk about the need for (de-facto) standards!
This is a really cool use of peer-to-peer technology; let’s hope that short-sighted greed doesn’t get in the way and have BMW and other automakers try and make such systems proprietary.
P.S. Let’s also hope that they design the UI well enough so that people don’t crash when sending out warnings!