US regulators will soon require light-duty vehicles sold in the US to be equipped with wireless chips so that cars can communicate with other cars on the roads.

The new technology, dubbed Dedicated Short Range Communications or DSRC, can prevent up to 80 percent of accidents, reduce congestion and save fuel.

A year-long $20 million experiment in Michigan proved very successful.

Carmakers have voluntarily pledged to roll out connected cars in Europe, with the first cars hitting the road in 2015.

In a report last year, the London-based consultancy ABI Research predicted that global penetration of the technology in new vehicles would grow from 10 percent in 2018 to 70 percent in 2027.

The system functions like wireless connections used by computers and performs some of the functions of cameras and sensors fitted in today’s cars.

Cars would receive and process information from nearby DSRC-enabled cars to learn their location, speed and direction in order to detect impending danger.

If a driver does not react to avoid collision, the car would sound a warning or apply the brakes.

DSRC can also gather signals from mobile phones and other devices which could help avoid collisions with pedestrians or cyclists.

This technology is regarded by the industry as a major step forward in road safety.

However, companies prefer voluntary rather than mandatory measures to roll in the chipped cars. But US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a press conference recently that “keeping drivers safe is the most important advantage of V2V technology.”

So, DSRC may well be a legal requirement soon.

There are of course issues of concern.

Like all new wireless technologies, DSRC may be subject to hacking.

Experts agree that “nothing is airtight” but realize that the risk is smaller than hacking mobile phones. So, sometime in the next few years, if your car can’t network with other cars on the road, it would be like a blind man crossing the street!

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*Adel Murad is a senior motoring and business journalist, based in London.

Email: [email protected]