Patent ID: 7418346

Claim:
A method for avoiding collisions between a host vehicle and one or more other vehicles, comprising: determining the position of the host vehicle and each other vehicle; equipping the host vehicle and each other vehicle with a transmitter/receiver; transmitting a signal from the transmitter/receiver of each other vehicle containing positional information about the other vehicle and additional information of potential interest about the other vehicle; and in the host vehicle, assessing the possibility of a collision involving the host vehicle and each other vehicle by receiving signals at the transmitter/receiver in the host vehicle from the transmitter/receiver of each other vehicle; analyzing the received signals to extract the positional information about the other vehicle from each signal; and analyzing the extracted positional information in order to determine, based on the extracted positional information, whether any signals contain additional information of interest about a possible collision involving the host vehicle; and when signals are determined to contain additional information of interest about a possible collision involving the host vehicle, extracting the additional information only from signals received from each transmitter/receiver whose signals are determined to contain additional information of interest, and analyzing the additional information to ascertain whether a collision between the host vehicle and any of the other vehicles is likely to occur in order to enable action to be taken to prevent the collision.