Positive train control could also aid in communicating train location and speed to maintenance teams that might be near active rail lines.
Several companies, like Inrix and Waze, use location and speed data transmitted from other cars on the road to provide such data.
Autonomous driving will be easier to manage when car companies work out standards that would let cars share information like location and speed among themselves.
Inrix, which gathers live location and speed data, announced on Wednesday a deal to supply traffic information to American drivers of BMW vehicles, beginning with certain 2013 models.
Using radio tracking technology developed by Trakus, a company based in Medford, Mass., the players' location and speed and the intensity of their body checks were calculated and disseminated in graphic form on each college's Web site.
"We have these fantastic devices in our pockets that can connect to the internet, detect your location and speed, take photos, and play sounds, but we treat them like they're just faster Game Boys".
But when you have an object coming toward you, the differences in the information you get from the left and right side are more subtle," and this makes the decision on location and speed more difficult.
The devices sent useful real-time information on truck location and speed, as well as dashboard gauge data like oil pressure and battery voltage, even indicating whether the tailgate was open.
Apparatus on a train compares this data with the train's own location and speed, projects a safe stopping distance ahead, and continuously calculates maximum speed for maintenance of that headway.
For years I've ridden with a Garmin 305, a cycle computer that sells for several hundred dollars and records your location and speed as well as heart rate and pedaling rate.
In fully realized ATCS, trains continuously and automatically radio to the dispatching centre their exact location and speed; both would be determined by a locomotive-mounted scanner as well as signals received from global positioning system (GPS) satellites.
