It’s back-to-school time and the Car Care Council wants to help families get their vehicles ready for car pools, playdates, soccer games and more. An informative new video from the non-profit organization provides motorists a with a five-point checklist to be performed before the start of the school year.

I had a great experience I recently moved to Blacksburg and when I asked around Modern Automotive came highly recomm...

When was the last time you had something like this to say about your automotive repair experience?

What are your thoughts on V2X?" Warning this is a bit of a long post:
As Automobiles increase in complexity and autonomy it is important that they are able communicate not just with their driver / passenger but with other vehicles, infrastructure and the like. There already exists a vast network of machines communicating with each other. This is known as the IOT (Internet of Things) and one natural progression is allowing your car to jump on the band wagon, this would be V2N or Vehicle to Network. I don't think you have to worry too much about your SUV Tweeting or posting Snap Chat pics. But it is already much more intelligent and connected than you might think. If you project the concept of autonomous vehicles you can understand that they should be enabled to communicate with each other (like drivers communicate with one another through things like signals, or a hand wave to tell another driver to go ahead, etc), vehicles communicating with one another is known as V2V communication. They should be able to know that there is a Wreck on I-81 Northbound at mile 127 (like we see on signs), well the same communication signal that told the sign could tell your car this is an example of V2I or Vehicle to Infrastructure. For safety reasons it might be helpful for the car to notify the college student who is about to step on the street without looking that this would be a bad idea by sending a message to the cell phone they are staring at. This is an example of V2P or Vehicle to Pedestrian communication. So what is left? Everything some things we have not or could not consider as of yet so.... Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communication is the answer. Sound weird? I get it. But make no mistake it is real and it is coming. So the next time you are at a social gathering and would like a conversation starter just ask "What are your thoughts on V2X?" I am sure that get the party started! 🙂