Patent ID: 7009501

Claim:
A method of detecting and preventing vehicle collision between at least two vehicles, one vehicle being a leading vehicle, and another being the trailing vehicle, the method comprising the steps of: providing an infrared emitter at the rear of the leading vehicle so as to communicate data to at least the trailing vehicle behind it; providing an infrared receiver at the front of a trailing vehicle so as to receive data from at least the leading vehicle; providing radio frequency emitters in close proximity to the vehicles that transmit data about vehicle's position; providing an on-board computer for regularly gathering the vehicle's velocity and vehicle's position; transmitting velocity and position data from the infrared emitter of the leading vehicle; receiving data at the receiver of the trailing vehicle; calculating, at the wailing vehicle, the distance from the leading vehicle to the trailing vehicle; and predicting whether a collision will occur based on the distance calculated and the current velocity of the trailing vehicle.