The next big technology addition to smartphones could be vehicle-to-pedestrian communications

At the ITS World Congress in Detroit last week, +General Motors, +Honda and +Qualcomm each demonstrated V2P capabilities and how it could potentially save lives. V2X (which includes vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to infrastructure, vehicle to pedestrian, vehicle to cyclist) is based on a technology known as dedicated short-range communications (DSRC).

DSRC is based on WiFi but it runs on a band of spectrum at 5.9 GHz set aside by the FCC for this purpose. The standard for DSRC is that short messages with information like speed, position, heading, braking and more get sent 10 times per second enabling other vehicles within 300 meters to be more aware of what is happening outside the visual range of the driver. 

Because DSRC is based on WiFi, it's fairly straightforward to extend it to existing WiFi enabled devices like smartphones. Qualcomm is working on optimizing its mobile WiFi chipsets to support DSRC without killing the battery. The big advantage is that drivers can be more aware of pedestrians and cyclists, potentially avoiding thousands of deaths and injuries every year. ?