Smartphone based Driver Assistance System for Coordinated Lane Change

Changing lanes while driving is one of the primary causes of accidents on highways. Changing lanes is a complex, voluntary maneuver that requires a driver of a vehicle to assess the traffic in the original and target lanes, the adjacent drivers' disposition, as well as the time available to complete the maneuver before undertaking the maneuver. Existing techniques use V2V communication that relies on the IEEE 802.11p WAVE standard which has not been adopted widely because, (1) the requirement of a separate on-board unit makes this choice expensive, and (2) the variation in spectral bands of DSRC in different countries makes deployment cumbersome. The proliferation of the smartphone with its myriad sensors and ability to communicate directly with other smartphones in an Ad-Hoc network allows us to use them in lieu of standard V2V communication. When a driver wants to change lanes, the driver's smartphone broadcasts its intent and the vehicle's movement parameters to the vehicles nearby using WiFi-Direct. The adjacent vehicles respond with their motion and location parameters allowing the first vehicle to cooperatively and safely perform a lane change maneuver. We postulate that if such a system is implemented, it is likely to be adopted and used. This system can also act as a bridge to future 802.11p based systems, when smartphones' WiFi can use DSRC.