US Patent 7994902 Cooperative sensor-sharing vehicle traffic safety system

A method and system for using vehicle-to-vehicle cooperative communications for traffic collision avoidance. One vehicle detects a “situation”, such as a pedestrian within the crosswalk, where an “offending object” is in or near a roadway feature, which could result in a collision. The detecting vehicle informs a second vehicle via wireless communications, of the detecting vehicle's GPS location, the GPS location of the detected object, and the GPS location of the roadway feature, i.e., a crosswalk boundary. Additional data about the “offending object” can include its speed and heading. A receiving vehicle receives this data and takes appropriate avoidance action.