Traffic free roads with wireless

The executive chairman of Ford, Bill Ford Jr, recently set out a vision of a world mostly free of traffic congestion as intelligent systems watched over traffic flow and directed vehicles accordingly.

A world where each parking space is monitored and cars directed to specific empty slots as they enter a city.

For all those sitting on the M25 yet again or driving round and round a multi-storey car park this may seem fantasy, but in principle it is a dream we could bring about.

Monitoring traffic flow is relatively easy, as is deducing where congestion is occurring and working out where to reroute cars.

But there is a big piece missing from the puzzle at the moment - a way to get information from sensors to control centres and from control centres back to cars, traffic lights, roadside signage and more.