We hit the streets and road test this new technology. Oh, i did not do that. Dr crystal dilworth is a molecular neuro scientist. Today not your average science project. Meet the High School Student whos extracuricular activity has scientists and others singing her praises. And im phil torres. Im an entomologist. Thats our team, now lets do some science. [ music ] hey, guys, welcome to techknow. Im phil torres, joined by shini somara, and dr crystal dilworth. Every year 30,000 americans are dying on the roads. This is still happening despite things like safety belts and airbags and active safety systems. Shini, you looked at technology that may give us a crashless future down the road. Yes, 30,000 faltalties is a fatalities is a shocking statistic, some caused by impaired driving. Of the remainder, 80 could be avoided using this technology. I went to ann arbor to check it out. Lets take a look. [ music ] reporter ann arbor pammela micheo, a quintessential college town, home of the university of michigan and its Transportation Research institute where they are developing and testing the future of driving. Im trying to kill him. Reporter that was a genuine alert that you were about to collide into a car in front. The city is a big field test for vehicle to vehicle or v2v, a fleet of vehicles talking to each other electronically. You say the vehicles are talking snag. In a small range, 200m, the vehicles are sending out messages 10 times a second showing position, speed and the instantaneously. Reporter Peter Sweatman is a director of the study. We found that the technology works, the users like the technology. Its aimed at safety and all the testing is showing that its highly effective. V2v works by surrounding each vehicle with a wifilike system called dedicated shortrange communication, and it shares data, calculating danger and warnings. Like when theres a car you cant see unexpectedly breaking, or when its not safe to pass a slower car, or when a car is in a blind spot during a lane change. Unlike Driverless Cars that allows vehicles to drive autonomously. V2v is an Early Warning system for human drivers, keeping them safer on the roads. Im downloading the data off a vehicle we have equipped with some vehicle to vehicle communication devices. Its showing interactions that this vehicle had with other vehicles in the study, that are in the anash our area. Reporter each car connected like . As it happens, we have a device like this. Messages . Yes, thats correct. We need a g. P. S. Unit in the vehicle. Thats pretty common these days in vehicles. So the technology itself is inexpensive, small and light. Reporter the Research Done here is studied by the department of transportation to some up with mandatory guidelines for v2v to be in all new cars. I wanted to experience v2v in a realworld setting. I asked the Programme Manager to drive me around ann arbor in the v2v demonstration van. Hi debbie, great to meet you. Nice to meet you, shini. Reporter tell me about the technology in the vehicle. This is our demonstration vehicle. We have it equipped with three afterdevices, and they transmit a message from vehicle to vehicle. Reporter can we see them in action . Absolutely. Each vehicle has a dedicated shortrange communication radio. We are transmitting a basic safety message, the vehicles speed, position and heading. Then we compare that to our own vehicle and do a threat assessment and warn the driver accordingly. Reporter so that forward collision was because the car in obstacle. Typically an mergee Electronic Brake emergency Electronic Brake like tells me, the driver, that one is braking, and not just braking, braking hard. Panic braking. It may not be in the lain in front of me lane in front of me, but one of the leaps. Along with v2v theres vehicle to infrastructure, where cars with sensors. We have a cautionary warping to say there was a kerb again curve. Is that v to i. V 2 i. The position of the curve, the curve exit and points along the curve and the speed. It knows when to give me a warning. The cautionary is easy. Hey, theres a warning up ahead. You dont want to do it 3 miles away, you want to do it when you are into range. Reporter the timing of the delivery of that information is crucial, isnt it . Yes, because you dont want to alert a driver to brake too soon or too late because if you do, you get into nuisance alarm. If you warn the driver all the time its a nuisance, and when they get a real alert theyll not pay attention. Reporter so the data you collected does it significantly improve safety. We found the technology works, they like to get the warnings coming from the awareness. Reporter originally when it comes to car safety you think of seat belts and protecting people if theres a crash. Crashes. We believe that the future will be avoiding crashes, and this particular technology, v2v is probably the most powerful we have come across in terms of avoiding crashes. So these are ice warnings. Reporter we know thats simulated because its 80 degrees outside. Exactly. So, you know, 80 degrees, and we get an ice warning. It felt strange. It demonstrates the usefulness of this technology because in those senses we can transmit whatever message is current at the time. Technology. Thats why they are doing research now, to fix that and not indicate ice when its sunny. Yes, and actually tell you moment. I can see how the alerts would be useful. Are they distracting when you drive . I expected them to be annoying, but i found them useful. I was a passenger. But coming up in part two, i get to drive. So they trusted you behind the wheel. They did. Break. We want to hear what you think about these stories. Join the conversation hundreds of days in detention. Al jazeera rejects all the charges and demands immediate release. Thousands calling for their freedom. Its a clear violation of their human rights. We have strongly urged the government to release those journalists. Journalism is not a crime. Hey, welcome back to techknow. Shini, you are showing Us Technology where cars are communicating with cars and infrastructure like stop light to make our driving experience safer, and now they let you behind the wheel. Yes, i got to test drive a car with a v2v system, and the challenge was to drive as badly as possible. How did that go . Ill let you decide. Lets take a look. Reporter so this is quite a blind spot, isnt it, because. You cant see past the tall bush there. Its hard to tell when traffic is coming by. Reporter tricky to paul out. A dreary day at General Motors in warren, michigan gave me a dose of reality to test drive the v2v. As a drive, when you cant see the road you edge forward. Ill do what i would naturally do edging forward. [ beeping ] coming. Thats an advantage of v2 v. It works if you driver cant see approaching vehicles. Reporter General Motors is one of nine major carmakers working together to make v2v a reality, an unusual teaming in a normally competitive industry. My car and a g. M. Vehicle needs to take to a toyota or ford or hyundai. And they need to send the same message. It cant happen if we develop this separately. Reporter john had a hand in building g. M. s current crash avoidance system. Alert systems exist in higherened cars. What is higher end cars. What is different about v2v. Cadd lacks have six raid areas, two cameras. They are not enough to see you. V 2 v fills in the gaps and lets you have more information to address the driving situations that are challenging. Reporter and challenging situation is is what i got from the test drive from v2v researcher donald grim. Ill be more reckless. Okay. Push the envelope. Reporter my last chance. Whoah. [ beeping ] reporter agh. What is a car doing stationary in the middle of my run way. Do you know what, i dont tend to look at that display. Thats not meant to focus on, its informational. Did you see the scrolling red . Really the alert that provides you, you know, the intended responses on top of the dash. Its important because for these type of alerts, we want to direct the persons attention, you know, to the road. So an alert that is high up within the drivers line of site is optimal. Reporter what is the maximum distance between cars . It depends on sort of the environment. If you are in a wide open space where signals are not really diminished by other vehicles or buildings, you potentially can communicate up to 1km. Reporter nntly driving along a road and the car in front provides information about the conditions of the road ahead. Yes. Reporter i slowed down as a result of that warning, saving the tyres, suspension. Money. Front. A dangerous encounter is a vehicle and pedestrian. Reporter lose of life. We call pedestrians vulnerable road users. They need extra protection. Information. To avoid pedestrians, g. M. Is testing out a smartphone act, exchanging signals between phone and vehicle. Pedestrian ahead. Just like that. Reporter wow. I would have driven straight through that. Therell be lots of applications when cars get v 2 v technology. That is information between two cars. What happens when every car is kitted out with this technology. Wouldnt the system be overloaded with information . Thats a technical challenge, where we need to develop a Security System to make sure that unwanted messages dont get send between vehicles. We think its possible to get to a point where crashes wont happen. It will take a while to get there. Reporter i suppose me drying im supposed to be driving recklessly. The test is drive as badly as you can. Well donald, we made it back. In one piece. Reporter yes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Reporter im surprised were alive. Its great. Not too bad. Reporter nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Obviously this is still in the testing phase. When do you think well see it used in production cars . You know, not for a few years. I mean, theres so much data generated here. 40 billion data points already. Thats a lot of information to be processed. Once it is processed they are hoping that brand new cars will have the System Installed and it will be mandatory. What about all cars like mine, if i want to participate and have v2v technology. You can do that. It takes two simple gadgets, v2v and the antenna. The amount of data changed through this box is incredible. But it looks so such. It looks like my wifi router and a shark fin you put on top of your carrism. And this is affordable. Thats the beauty of this, it can be after market. So many Safety Innovations you have to build it in from the grouped up. This you can put in there. Its amazing. The strength of the technology is in everyone using it. That wont be for a few years. It protects challenges. I love the presents challenges. I love the idea of cars ahead sending a signal to my car. With so many cars on the road, if they are all talking to each other, how does my car know which one to listen to . Thats where the science comes in because you need to know when to give the warning. You dont want to the give it too early and people ignore and, or too late and you find yourself in a collision. That was my favourite warning, the car in front experienced a deep pothole, be fair. Everywhere be careful. Other. Is this like a black box, if back. No, theres no record. The strength of this is its cars talking to each other. Its very much in the moment. Yes, very much in the moment, and providing a Warning System of what lies ahead. We are hearing about Driverless Cars. Technology . The v2v technology is a step before Driverless Cars. We need v2v technology to enhance the concept of cars. V2v is real. Its tested. There are 3,000 cars on the road with this technology. One day, what they develop and create will feed into the scenes of Driverless Cars. Drive. Coming up after the break. Something that is near and dear to your heart. The idea of stem. Absolutely. Ill introduce you to an up and coming rock as far as a stem field, science, technology, engineering and maths. Shes a High School Student and about to make huge corrections to science. I love it. Well check it out next. Real. News. [ music ] hey, welcome back to techknow, im phil torres, and with me is shini somara, and crystal dilworth. Crystal dilworth, i never see you more excited than when talking about young women doing Amazing Things in science. Absolutely, nothing makes me happier, with a young woman challenging the stereotypes. Im excited to introduce you to a girl, petra grutzik, a finalist at the Intel International science and engineering festival. She is making contributions to my field, neuroscience. Lets take a look. My name is petra, im 18. Ill go to stanford university. When i found i qualified for isef it was unbelievable. My promote was about birds, fimption. They finches, they learn how to sing like we learn to talk using foxp2. Its involved in Speech Development in humans and songbirds. Scientists can study foxp2 in songbirds and learn about it for humans. This is my love in the Life Sciences building at u. C. L. A. Reporter petra is part of a Team Investigating foxp2. Its the on single gene that when mutated results in human speech and language disorder. Dr nancy day was interested in reaching out to young women and helping to train them in science. We have excellent undergraduates at u. C. L. A. , but petra. She plays songs on her perch. She brought some of her background from working in robotics so we could have a cage that would serve a multitude of functions. That is her cage. To have petras promote recognised above and beyond that was beyond my imagination. So my parents, mum and dad, have been unbelievably, incredibly inspiring. Dad, since i was superlittle would take me to lectures at caltech and encourage me to ask questions. I am really active at school. Im the president and founder of a club called red talks. Like a mini version of the ted talks. We invite speakers to come in and talk about what they do, how they got to where they are, and what its like to be a researcher. I got the opportunity to meet professors and its amazing to meet amazing whim like dr white and dr jay. It enabled me to see myself in a lab. It unables me to see myself in enables me to see myself in science when i grow up. So, first of all, she was amazing. Secondsly, when you see an example of someone like petra, what stands out to you . What struck me is not only that she was a bright individual, but the importance of mentorship and role models. Her father took her to science lectures when she was young, she had great female roll models, and role models and mentorship are important to keeping women in stem field. We have a disparity between men and women with degrees in stem fields. You see dropoffs of women that are able to ascent to a c. E. O. Of a tech company or getting a teenure professorship. Role models is a factor to retaining women. Did you have a role model for your ph. D. . My role model was my dad, which is what i related to when it came to petra. What instruct me about her was her passion for her subject and her enthusiasm. I dont remember at the aim of 18 being that aim of 18 being that clear about what i wanted to do this science. It was inspiring. What i can relate to is not just the passion about the science, but the aryanism, she organism, she seemed to love the birds. That was me at that age. I can relate to being passionate about a creature and using it as aol. I love the way she was fascinated by the animal. I was fascinated by the way she used robotic knowledge to enhance her research, its a work. And an example of where Science Research is going. Its so crossdisciplinary, being an expert in one is not enough any more. Its great to see someone starting at stanford. He she has that handle. For viewers, young women waiting to get into science or mentors, what advice do you have . Dont think because you are not at university, that you cant get in there and participate. Ask your science teachers that you have in your middle school or high school as many questions as you have, and ask them for additional resources. Theyll be able to help you to educate yourself. I would say stick to what makes you curious. Her curiositity came across, thats why shes so good at what she does. She has a natural inquisitiveness. And fortunately he had the enablers along side her to push her to get to the level and is doing amazing stuff. Both of you are amazing examples of breaking those boundaries of stereotypes of what scientists should look like or be passionate about or do on a daily basis. You guys are so great. Crystal, what do you have there . I have here a picture of the shoes that i wore for graduation when i received a ph. D. In chemistry from Chemical Engineering from caltech. You dont have to apologise for being female in a tech field. Those are to die for. I want. I wanted to make a statement. You can see more sparkly scientist is shoes and pictures from us in the field if you follow us on twitter and instagram. Thats it for this week, amazing stuff. Thank you for your stories, and you can see more like it next time an techknow. On tech know, imagine getting the chance to view the world. 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