The intelligent intersection of Honda tells drivers what to expect

Here's a demonstration of Honda's intelligent intersection in Marysville, Ohio (where a Honda vehicle manufacturing plant is located). The presentation also alerted the driver when an invisible pedestrian strolling down the street was crossing the street turning right at the intersection and when another driver was burning a red light.

By placing cameras over traffic lights at the fifth and main intersections, Honda has built a smart intersection that warns drivers of potential problems. Wide angle cameras monitor the roads leading to the intersection and identify pedestrians, cars and emergency vehicles. It empties the actual video footage and sends the raw data to specially designed HUDs, which will reside in 20 pilot vehicles (initially) driven by Honda employees.

This number will eventually reach a few hundred cars as the builder studies data collected during incidents at the intersection. This is part of the builder's research on reducing injuries and deaths, car to car and car on foot, bike and motorcycle.

"We can not realize the zero collision dream – for our customers and society as a whole – based solely on highly automated vehicles," said Ted Klaus, vice president of strategic research at Honda R & D Americas. Honda has realized that infrastructure and technology such as vehicle-all (V2X) are integral to this zero-collision dream.

Honda is not the only builder to look for cars that talk to infrastructure. In Las Vegas and Washington, DC, Audi has worked with these cities to equip intersections running with this builder's countdown lights.

But none of the builders is an infrastructure company. While their research is important, local and national governments need to implement such features. But before doing anything, the industry and regulators need to understand how this is going to happen.

It is to help create standards developed by automakers, governments and suppliers. Honda has been involved in creating global standards for crash test manikins, for example. The company does not build these mannequins, but it is important that automakers participate in the process leading to a system that accelerates the adoption of a smarter infrastructure.

Meanwhile, pilot programs are underway in cities like Marysville, Ohio. Honda knows this is just a small step towards a smarter infrastructure that reduces collisions. It is foolish to be able to count on autonomous cars that can take decades to populate our cities. For streets to be safer for everyone, cities and automakers must work together and these programs should start as soon as possible.