Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) promises safer roads and this year, a group of undergraduate students will have the chance to create innovative ways to use the technology.

“We are confident that the greatest innovation will come from students who have essentially grown up using technology,” said University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) director Peter Sweatman. “They see connected technology and automatically think how it can be used to make the greatest impact. This is a chance for them to be part of the future of transportation.”

Ford in partnering with UMTRI is offering groups of students the chance to participate in a year-long program that will test V2V communication between vehicles and roadside equipment. UMTRI mentors will give help to each team and the teams will have access to two two-way dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) devices.

“The competition encourages the development of new mobile application on the connected vehicle platform that we hope will generate creative thinking about how to grow the potential for V2V technologies in the future,” said Paul Mascarenas, the chief technology officer at Ford. “This research is pivotal to the delivery of the next generation of Ford driver assistance technologies and will globally benefit Ford customers, other road users and the environment.”

Each team will be allowed access to vehicles where their projects will be installed along with a $2,500 stipend to offset additional costs. The winning team of this competition will take home $5,000, with second place getting $2,500, and third following with $1,250. Idea submissions are due by December 1st.